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Rundell‘s prize-winning bio of John Donne was a sheer pleasure to read. Having only read a bit of his poetry, I now know enough about Donne to win the Jeopardy! category. A remarkable life, but not always admirable-17th century men, amirite? Rundell did a remarkable job here.
Just down the literal road from me, the Folger Shakespeare Library has some of his few surviving letters; I‘d like to visit them when the Folger reopens. Link in comments ⬇️

This was excellent! The style was light and facetious at times and I felt like I understood a tiny bit more by the end ... It definitely made me want to read his poetry again.

I studied John Donne in college & was unprepared for how his poems surprised & delighted me. It's been years since I've read him but Rundell's lovely biography has given me the itch to rediscover him. Just like Donne's subject matter was perfect for him, the way in which he transformed feeling & bodily experience to thought, so is Donne the perfect material for Rundell. Her style is playful, fluid, thoughtful, always compelling. This was a treat!

This is the kind of energy I intend to have on my deathbed: “Queen Elizabeth died, aged sixty-nine, in the spring of 1603. Quick-witted and quick-tempered to the very grave, she refused to go to bed; when Robert Cecil told her she must, she was said to have slapped him back: ‘Must! Is must a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man!‘“

The most unhinged passage I will read today: “Maps could be the sexiest paperwork. In around 1330, the Lombardian Opicinus de Canistris was making an anthropomorphic map: a scribe in the papal office of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Opicinus drew maps in which landmasses took on eyes and fingers.

“The power of John Donne‘s words nearly killed a man.“

-- Katherine Rundell, _Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne_

#FridayReads #FirstLineFriday

Congratulations to Katherine Rundell, winner of the The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2022. Can‘t wait to read it!

#BaillieGifford2022

Aaaaaaand another Waterstones trip ?

Got chatting to the man at the till who thinks I'll love John Updike and Douglas Stuart. He's the second person to recommend Lonesome Dove to me this year, so I'm sure I'll be back to make another purchase soon ?

I'm particularly intrigued to read about John Donne whose poetry I adore ? "Mark but this flea and mark in this, how little that which thou deniest me is..." (Nice try, Donne ?)