Tender Is the Night, semiautobiographical novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1934  is the story of a psychiatrist who marries one of his patients; as she slowly recovers, she exhausts his vitality until he is, in Fitzgerald’s words, un homme épuisé (“a used-up man”).  At first a charming success, Dick Diver disintegrates into drunkenness, failure, and anonymity as his wife Nicole recovers her strength and independence.  Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the Divers’ life of lassitude was a reflection of his years spent among the American expatriate community in France; his insight into Nicole’s madness came from his observations of his wife Zelda’s mental breakdowns.  Diver is said to be based on the author’s friend Gerald Murphy, but the character reflects much of Fitzgerald as well.  A revised version, which appeared in 1948, abandons the original edition’s flashbacks and relates the story in chronological order.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tender-Is-the-Night   In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Tender is the Night 28th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

In his 1884 poem Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats wrote:  "Tender is the night and haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne"  F. Scott Fitzgerald co-opted the phrase "tender is the night" for his 1934 novel.  49 years later, Jackson Browne used the title for his song about the wonders of love.  https://www.songfacts.com/facts/jackson-browne/tender-is-the-night

In early 1998, the Modern Library polled its editorial board to find the best 100 novels.  The board consisted of Daniel J. Boorstin, A. S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal.  Ulysses by James Joyce topped the list, followed by F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  The most recent novel in the list is William Kennedy's Ironweed, published in 1983; the oldest is The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler, which was written between 1873 and 1884, but not published until 1902.  Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, serialized in 1899, is the only novel published in the 19th century; it was later republished in book form during 1902.  Conrad has four novels on the list, the most of any author.  William Faulkner, E. M. Forster, Henry James, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Evelyn Waugh each have three novels.  There are ten other authors with two novels.  See list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels

Tender Is the Night is a 1962 film directed by Henry King and starring Jennifer Jones and Jason Robards. King's last film, it is based on the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The soundtrack featured a song, also called "Tender Is the Night", by Sammy Fain (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics), which was nominated for the 1962 Academy Award for Best Song. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tender_Is_the_Night_(film)

The Best Green Salad in the World by Samin Nosrat  The menu description gives little away:  “leafy greens in sherry vinaigrette.”  A visual inspection of the dish reveals only leaves of endive, butter lettuce, frisée and watercress all piled as high as gravity will allow, topped by a drizzle of dressing studded generously with shallots and mustard seeds.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/magazine/best-green-salad-recipe.html  See also World’s Best Salad Ever by Lori, The Kitchen Whisperer at https://www.thekitchenwhisperer.net/2014/06/14/worlds-best-salad-ever/

Brobdingnag is a fictional land in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels occupied by giants.  Lemuel Gulliver visits the land after the ship on which he is travelling is blown off course and he is separated from a party exploring the unknown land.  In the second preface to the book, Gulliver laments that this is a misspelling introduced by the publisher and the land is actually called Brobdingrag.  

The adjective "Brobdingnagian" has come to describe anything of colossal size.  Read more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brobdingnag#Legacy

Jeff Koons 'Rabbit' Fetches $91 Million, Auction Record For Work By Living Artist by Laurel Wamsley  A 3-foot-tall silver bunny just set an art world record.  Rabbit, by the playful and controversial artist Jeff Koons, sold for more than $91 million at Christie's Auction House--the most ever for work by a living artist at auction.  Robert Mnuchin, an art dealer and the father of the Treasury Secretary, had the winning bid on behalf of a client.  The stainless steel sculpture is a faceless space bunny, a balloon that's not a balloon.  The piece was one of 11 works that were offered from the collection of magazine publisher S.I. Newhouse, the longtime chairman of Condé Nast who died in 2017.  The sculpture was cast in 1986 in an edition of just three, plus an artist's proof.  The one sold Wednesday was the last one in private hands, with the others in the collections of The Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the National Museum of Qatar.  Rabbit was turned back into a balloon to float above Manhattan in the 2007 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  See picutres at https://www.npr.org/2019/05/16/723888420/jeff-koons-rabbit-fetches-91-million-auction-record-for-work-by-living-artist

Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled two new buildings in January 2019 that contain libraries as well as affordable housing units.  The project is a collaboration between the Chicago Public Library, which has 81 locations throughout the city, and the Chicago Housing Authority, with a goal of providing housing and educational opportunities under the same roof.  The new buildings offer 44 senior apartments, 30 CHA units and 14 affordable units in the Irving Park neighborhood; and 29 affordable apartments, 37 CHA units and 7 market-rate units in Little Italy.  Another mixed-use building is expected to open later this year in West Ridge on the city’s North Side.  And a new public library is slated for construction on CHA-owned land near the Altgeld Gardens public housing project on the Far South Side.  The monthly rent for both CHA and affordable apartment units are set at 60 percent of the area’s median income--occupants of CHA units are eligible for further rent assistance through vouchers.  The buildings were designed by some of Chicago’s top architects chosen from a design competition held by the city.  John Ronan Architects designed Irving Park’s Independence Branch Library and Apartments (4204 N. Elston Ave.); the Taylor Street Apartments and Little Italy Branch Library (1336 W. Taylor St.) was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.  The project underway in West Ridge is designed by Perkins+Will.  Evan Garcia  https://news.wttw.com/2019/01/24/new-chicago-buildings-combine-libraries-public-housing

I.M. Pei, the versatile, globe-trotting architect who revived the Louvre with a giant glass pyramid and captured the spirit of rebellion at the multishaped Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has died at age 102.  Pei’s works ranged from the trapezoidal addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to the chiseled towers of the National Center of Atmospheric Research that blend in with the reddish mountains in Boulder, Colorado.  His buildings added elegance to landscapes worldwide with their powerful geometric shapes and grand spaces.  Among them are the striking steel and glass Bank of China skyscraper in Hong Kong and the Fragrant Hill Hotel near Beijing.  His work spanned decades, starting in the late 1940s and continuing through the new millennium.  Pei, who as a schoolboy in Shanghai was inspired by its building boom in the 1930s, immigrated to the United States and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.  He advanced from his early work of designing office buildings, low-income housing and mixed-used complexes to a worldwide collection of museums, municipal buildings and hotels.  He fell into a modernist style blending elegance and technology, creating crisp, precise buildings.  His big break was in 1964, when he was chosen over many prestigious architects, such as Louis Kahn and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, to design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.  No challenge seemed to be too great for Pei, including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which sits on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland. Pei, who admitted he was just catching up with the Beatles, researched the roots of rock ’n’ roll and came up with an array of contrasting shapes for the museum.  He topped it off with a transparent tentlike structure, which was “open—like the music,” he said.  In 1988, President Ronald Reagan honored him with a National Medal of Arts.  He also won the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, in 1979.  President George H.W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992.  Pei officially retired in 1990 but continued to work on projects.  Two of his sons, Chien Chung Pei and Li Chung Pei, former members of their father’s firm, formed Pei Partnership Architects in 1992.  Their father’s firm, previously I.M. Pei and Partners, was renamed Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.  Ieoh Ming Pei (pronounced YEE-oh ming pay) was born April 26, 1917, in Canton, China, the son of a banker.  He later said, “I did not know what architecture really was in China.  At that time, there was no difference between an architect, a construction man or an engineer.”  Kathy McCormack  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-met-im-pei-obituary-associated-press-0516-story.html   I.M. Pei died May 16, 2019 in New York.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2099  May 17, 2019