Bucket List 🪣
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I've never made a Bucket List before. It seemed too daunting. But this weekend, it occurred to me that I already have a Bucket List in my mind. It doesn't reach every possible corner of existence—but it does cover my big-picture hopes for Altamira Studio. I wanted to share this with you. If you make one for yourself, I'd love to see it. Here's my Bucket List -- goals within the realm of writing & publishing. ​ Simon & Schuster started by solving a beautifully simple problem in 1924. One of the co-founders, Richard Simon, had an aunt who loved the NYT crossword puzzle and wished she could have a whole book of crossword puzzles. Lo and behold, Richard and his friend Max Schuster discovered that nobody had published a book of crossword puzzles. So they launched their own publishing company to capitalize on that opportunity. 2) Experience the modern-day equivalent of the "Howl" victory. Allen Ginsberg's provocative poem "Howl" was censored aggressively as soon as it was published. The publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was arrested and tried for obscenity in 1957. Nine literary experts testified at the trial, arguing that the poem wasn't obscene. They won. ​ Also in 1957, Ayn Rand negotiated directly with Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House, to publish Atlas Shrugged—without editorial changes. Rand had already demonstrated spectacular & surprising success with The Fountainhead. She had enough sway & talent to set the terms of her own deal. I hope to meet a writer like that and have the chance to publish him or her. ​ Many of the greatest books end up being adapted into films—Tolkien, JK Rowling, the list goes on. I'm looking for a project like that. ​ Stay creative! Ellen |
Ellen Fishbein ~ ALTAMIRA.STUDIO
There are perks to having a philosopher on your team. My co-founder Bill Jaworski is a philosopher. It’s fun to work with him because he’ll say something super insightful, off the cuff, and then I won’t be able to stop thinking about it. Last week, he drew this spellbinding analogy between writing a great book and building the Parthenon: “The Parthenon is supposed to look perfectly symmetrical, the same in all dimensions. But as you approach the Parthenon, the two outer columns are not framed...
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