"I began writing in March of 1978, prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk." This dark inspiration led Umberto Eco to begin his career as novelist at the somewhat tardy age of 46. Already established as one of the world's leading semioticians, a lecturer in constant demand, and a thin

Dense, Layered, Lush, Mathematical, Postmodern fiction, Semiotics

Perhaps the most famous of all outsider artists, Joseph Cornell is best known for the shadow box collages he assembled in the basement of the Queens home he shared with his mother and brother. His assemblages usually include dolls, thimbles, engravings, magazine pictures, and pretty much anything he

Collage, Contemplative, Intimate, Layered, Serene, Surreal, Surrealist art

From an early age, Joyce disdained what he saw as the shabby Philistinism of his birthplace, Dublin, rejecting the Catholicism that dominated Irish culture in favor of a literary faith and a rebel's stance. Absolutely convinced of his genius, Joyce left for self-imposed exile in Europe in 1904, and b

Composed, Excessive, Expansive, Formless, Layered, Modernist literature, Moody, Playful, Postmodern fiction, Profane, Religious, Sprawling, Subtle

According to Critic JoAnn Cannon, the key to Italo Calvino's renowned final novel, "Mr. Palomar" (1983), lies in several innovative literary ideas outlined in three essays written in the 1950s (and now included in the 1982 collection "Una pietra sopa"). These essays grappled with his contemporaries'

Clean, Eclectic, Experimental, Layered, Postmodern fiction, Spare, Surreal