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Adam Roberts
Adam Roberts

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Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·1 day ago

Paradisus Amissa (1702)

Michael Bold’s 1702 translation of Paradise Lost into Latin is now an exceedingly rare book (Bonhams describe it as ‘a very scarce edition, with only 3 copies of this issue cited on ESTC, and none traced on Rare Book Hub’). Or to be precise, it’s scarce in physical form, but…

2 min read

Paradisus Amissa (1702)
Paradisus Amissa (1702)

2 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·5 days ago

Ned Rorem on The Beatles

I have enjoyed this week’s Radio 3 ‘Composer of the Week’ series, in which Donald Macleod has taken us through the career of Ned Rorem. In addition to a rich and varied musical corpus, Rorem also kept a long series of private diaries, later published, which were once famous for…

Ned Rorem

4 min read

Ned Rorem on The Beatles
Ned Rorem on The Beatles
Ned Rorem

4 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 28

The Afterlife of the One Ring

What happens to Sauron’s ring? Of course it is destroyed: dissolved in the magma of Mount Doom, the only material hot enough, or magically-primed enough — since this is where the ring was originally forged — to break it. OK: but what about afterwards? Here’s what I said about the…

One Ring

4 min read

The Afterlife of the One Ring
The Afterlife of the One Ring
One Ring

4 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 26

Julian Cope, “Fried” (1984)

I went to Aberdeen University in 1983, spent four years doing an English-Classics Joint-Honours degree and after that went straight to Cambridge to do my PhD. In my first year as an undergraduate I was shuffled randomly into student-accommodation with three guys, all medical students. We got on well, and…

18 min read

Julian Cope, “Fried” (1984)
Julian Cope, “Fried” (1984)

18 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 25

The German Edition of “The Hobbit”

The Hobbit (1937) did not appear in a German-language edition until 1957: Der Kleiner Hobbit und der große Zauberer (translated by Walter Scherf; published Recklinghausen: Paulus-Verlag). Why the delay? There is a very famous story, often repeated, that the German publisher Rütten & Loening approached Tolkien to publish a (likely…

Tolkien

3 min read

The German Edition of “The Hobbit”
The German Edition of “The Hobbit”
Tolkien

3 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 21

Chesterton’s Darwinian Carburettor …

… is the name of my new band. In 1926 Dorothy Collins became G K Chesterton’s secretary. Her employer had another ten years of life in him, during which time he relied, increasingly, on her assistance. Here’s J.I.M. Stewart: Perhaps she is best glimpsed during Chesterton’s second lecture tour in…

Chesterton

5 min read

Chesterton’s Darwinian Carburettor …
Chesterton’s Darwinian Carburettor …
Chesterton

5 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 18

Robert Burns, ‘On The Surprising Speed of the Hippopotamus’

Great heftin, lumbrin, yawn-gob beastie, O, what a weight is in thy tummy At loll in lakes or on land marshy, Soakin and sunnin: Yet I for one could not outpace thee When ye start runnin! An when you’re in your ain dominion Beneath the waves an submare swimmin It’s nae a matter o opinion, To mark your speed o’, Gainst any fish or seal you’re winnin, A sliek torpedo! Great Hippo, like unto a freight train, Thou Boltst aye faster than doth Usain: Impeded not a jot by weight-gain With joyous speed The best laid diets o’ massy men Should pay thee heed!

Robert Burns

1 min read

Robert Burns, ‘On The Surprising Speed of the Hippopotamus’
Robert Burns, ‘On The Surprising Speed of the Hippopotamus’
Robert Burns

1 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 16

Viriconiana

It’s what was, by 1971 when the first of M John Harrison’s Viriconium novels was published, a well-established tradition: Vance’s Dying Earth, a far future in which remnants of (to us 20th or 21st-century folk) advanced technology, distressed and rusted but still functional, coexist with a decadent, Early Modern or…

Viriconium

10 min read

Viriconiana
Viriconiana
Viriconium

10 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 11

“Don’t Use Sugar, Use My Substitute” (1918)

A striking department store window-display in La Crosse, Winsconsin, 1918. Robert N. Gross has the story. As the U.S. government prosecuted its aims “Over There” in Europe, it busied itself with fighting a different sort of war “Over Here,” on the home front. In cities and on farms, in schools…

2 min read

“Don’t Use Sugar, Use My Substitute” (1918)
“Don’t Use Sugar, Use My Substitute” (1918)

2 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·Nov 9

Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Pingu’

Once upon a night Antarctic, whilst I pondered the cathartic Power of many quaint and tragic volumes of forgotten lore — While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a clapping, As of flippers briskly slapping, slapping on my igloo floor. …

Pingu

2 min read

Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Pingu’
Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Pingu’
Pingu

2 min read

Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts

416 Followers

Writer and academic. London-adjacent.

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