Dating the Iliad,Stocking Girl’s Wet Pink Petals and Other News
By Sadie Stein
On the Shelf
Geneticists estimate that the Iliadwas written in 762 B.C., “give or take fifty years.” This squares with what classicists believe, too.
Barnes & Noble says that rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated.
Today in fearless luxury, these bespoke bindings are very beautiful.
And speaking of books as status symbols: the book in medieval portraiture.
The critics have spoken! The winners of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle awards are: Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk(fiction); Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree(nonfiction); Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies(autobiography); Marina Warner, Stranger Magic(criticism); Robert Caro, The Passage of Power(biography); and D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys(poetry).
