Celebrate the Key West Literary Pantheon

Books & Books @ The Studios honors Key West’s extraordinary literary legacy with the Key West Literary Pantheon, a frieze wrapping around the store above its bookshelves. The frieze celebrates the names of forty-four distinguished and nationally recognized authors, all of whom have lived and/or worked in our island paradise.

This amazing group includes eleven Pulitzer Prize winners (some multiple times), six National Book Award winners, and three winners of the prestigious Bollingen Poetry Prize.  These literary artists have drawn sustenance from the Key West muse which in some subtle way drew out creativity in a manner that an intellectual hot-bed like New York could not.

As James Leo Herlihy, author of Midnight Cowboy put it “The town excited …. I spent all my time exploring, walking the streets. The place was mysterious, funky, indescribably exotic. It had much of the charm of a foreign country, but you had the post office and the A&P and the phone worked, so life was easy.” John Dewey, perhaps the leading philosopher of the last century, confirmed “the mañana mood develops very easily here,” but it made words flow. William Gaddis heard it was a lazy retreat popular with artists and writers. Looking for a quiet place to finish the novel he was working on, he found the perfect shady porch to set up his rickety Olympia typewriter, completing the novel J R, a winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

Perhaps the best explanation comes from David Kaufelt, founder of the Key West Literary Seminar: “I have a theory why we all live here.  It’s called the Peter Pan theory. Freud said that we are at our most creative when we are in our very early youth, before we’re five years old. That’s where we are here. We wear shorts, we ride bicycles, we have the water, a great symbol of the unconscious, and we’re free to be children here and let our spirits go. There’s nobody in suits and ties telling us what we have to do.”

Although our Pantheon is limited to deceased writers, there is no doubt that the Key West magic
continues to this day. Among our current residents are many of equal stature: Pulitzer Prize
winners including Annie Dillard and Alison Lurie, National Book Award nominee Phyllis Rose, many members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters — including Anne Beattie, Joy Williams and Edmund White, the inestimable Laurent de Brunhoff, and Library of Congress Living Legend Judy Blume.

Preorder a copy of THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE (coming Feb. 25), in store or from our online store and you’ll receive a signed first edition of the book and magnet, while limited supplies last.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.

Erik Larson is the author of five national bestsellers: Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm, which have collectively sold more than nine million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.

Have a blessed festival of lights!

Dear Friends,

George and I are thrilled to be back at the store. And doubly thrilled that George is feeling great and coming up with new ideas every day. We’ve already moved Mind, Body, Spirit to its own section, expanded biography, history and science, and given cookbooks a bright new space.

We can’t thank our staff enough for keeping the store going last season. Emily, Robin, Lori, Gia and Camila — you deserve medals. We’re hoping to add a new bookseller this season. More about that next time. Welcome back to our loyal volunteers, Michael, Erika, Shelli, Karen, Anna, and Carey. Looking forward to seeing the rest of you as you return to town.

To kick off our season I’m excited to tell you we have three Stars coming to Books & Books in the next few weeks, two of them directly from the Miami Book Fair. Each one a special friend of Key West and our store.

Wednesday, November 20th at 6pm Dani Shapiro will talk about and sign her latest best seller, Inheritance, a book I could not, would not put down until I’d finished. Imagine, you sign up for one of those ancestor websites for fun, spitting in that little vial until you’re sure you’ve no spit left. You expect to maybe find out you’ve got a long lost distant cousin somewhere in the world. Instead you’re hit over the head with shocking news. I’ll let Dani tell you the rest. She’s a dynamic writer and speaker. You don’t want to miss this chance to meet Dani, hear her story, and have her sign your book.

Monday, November 25th at 6pm Stephen Chbosky (Cha-bosky) will tell us about his new novel, Imaginary Friend. You know his book Perks of Being a Wallflower and I hope you’ve seen the movie based on that novel, adapted and directed by Stephen. It played at the Tropic Cinema and when it did I saw it four times. Yes, four! Each time I found something new in it. Stephen went on to adapt and direct the film Wonder with Julia Roberts. And now, he’s written a novel published for adults — an entertaining thriller, scary like the best stories of another Stephen, whose last name starts with a K. Great characters, haunting, unique. Bring the teens to meet Stephen. They’ll love him. So will you. He and I met over a book banning case in Chicago — where a group of teens were defending Perks of Being a Wallflower.  I’m sure he’ll tell us about that and more. I’m betting there will be a movie of Imaginary Friend and that Stephen will be adapting and directing. Read the book first.

Friday, December 6th at 6pm we’ll welcome Jami Attenberg back to Books & Books with her new bestseller All This Could Be Yours, one of her best books yet. Jami delighted us 2 years ago. If you were there you’ll remember. If not, you’ll find out why we love her. I gobbled up this novel then went back to the beginning and started again to try to figure out how she does it. How does she create characters who are so real you embrace them (when sometimes you don’t like what they’re doing on the page)? She’ll answer that question and more. She’s a great reader and very funny. Book Clubs are already choosing All This Could Be Yours for their next pick. Jami gives us plenty to talk about and even more to think about on our own. She promised on this tour she’d bring her dog Sid, famous on Twitter. Alas, Sid is at home in New Orleans with a great new sitter awaiting Jami’s return. Thank you for coming back, Jami! We can’t wait to see you.

Please help us welcome all three of these best-selling authors. See you at the store.

Love,

Tuesday, November 12, at 6pm, Rosalind Brackenbury will be in store for a reading and book signing featuring her new novel, WITHOUT HER.

In a novel that critics are calling smart, sexy and suspenseful, Key West poet and novelist Brackenbury writes a compelling story of female friendship and rivalry.

When her old friend Hannah doesn’t show up at her house in the south of France, everyone assumes that Claudia, who has known Hannah since their shared years at boarding school, will know where she is, and what has happened. But as Claudia travels from the USA to France to help Hannah’s husband and children conduct their search, she is forced to deal with her old jealousy of Hannah, as well as her own relationship in the present with her French lover, Alexandre.

As events unfold, Claudia begins to wonder if Hannah and Alexandre may have had an affair and if that has had something to do with Hannah’s mysterious disappearance. In this exquisitely written, Ferrante-esque novel the question of whether or not Hannah will come back becomes urgent and bewildering. And if she doesn’t come back, what will the lives of her friends and family be without her?

Always a local fan favorite, Brackenbury is the author of BECOMING GEORGE SAND, PARIS STILL LIFE, THE THIRD SWIMMER, THE LOST LOVE LETTERS OF HENRI FOURNIER and other titles. A former writer-in-residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, she has also served as poet laureate of Key West.

If you’re a poet or interested in the craft of poetry, she is also teaching a class at The Studios of Key West on the Elements of Poetry this November.

Flashback to our 2018 Q&A with the author discussing THE LOST LOVE LETTERS OF HENRI FOURNIER: https://booksandbookskw.com/a-qa-with-rosalind-brackenbury-author-of-the-lost-love-letters-of-henri-fournier/