Less nervous than Nervous Purvis, more nervous than Never Nervous Purvis.
What I’m Reading
...now and forever. This edition (complete with very pretty, albeit a bit inexplicable from an illustrative standpoint, cover from William Blake) has the full Old English text with a facing gloss--very handy for a first attempt at reading it in the original. I slowly seem to be collecting every other translation in the history of the world.
Massive tome on Hollywood in the 1940s. Slow going so far, but I'm only a few chapters in.
A poet who, despite being an undoubted success, I only heard of when her obituary was published in the New York Times just after Christmas. Kind of too depressing for words.
What, I can't have a hobby?
July 24, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Was Melvin Purvis the first person called “Nervous Purvis”? He was a G-man involved in the John Dillinger incident at the Biograph Theater. If not, do you know the origin of that expression? Sorry if you’ve been asked this before; I didn’t see a search function on your blog.
Also, I think “Never Nervous” is Pervis Ellison, so his nickname is “Never Nervous Pervis.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Nervous