Neglected Books
@neglectedbooks.com
Brad Bigelow, writer in Missoula, MT
Author, Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts (Jan 2026)
Editor, Recovered Books series @ Boiler House Press:
www.boilerhouse.press/recovered-books
Editor, neglectedbooks.com. Champion of reading off the beaten path.
Author, Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts (Jan 2026)
Editor, Recovered Books series @ Boiler House Press:
www.boilerhouse.press/recovered-books
Editor, neglectedbooks.com. Champion of reading off the beaten path.
Imagine putting on your tux, strolling arm-in-arm with a woman in a beautiful gown into the Stork Club, easing into a banquette table, lighting up a cigarette, and ordering Broiled Calf's Liver with String Beans.
December 26, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Imagine putting on your tux, strolling arm-in-arm with a woman in a beautiful gown into the Stork Club, easing into a banquette table, lighting up a cigarette, and ordering Broiled Calf's Liver with String Beans.
"Wearing a Great Big Smile" (and little else). One of the most anti-Code musical numbers of the Pre-Code era, from Meet the Baron (1933), starring the mostly-forgotten radio comic Jack Pearl ("Vas you dere, Charley?").
December 26, 2025 at 7:00 PM
"Wearing a Great Big Smile" (and little else). One of the most anti-Code musical numbers of the Pre-Code era, from Meet the Baron (1933), starring the mostly-forgotten radio comic Jack Pearl ("Vas you dere, Charley?").
I wrote a book about Virginia Faulkner.
Virginia who?
Here's a little video that attempts to answer that question.
Coming 1 January 2026 from @univnebpress.bsky.social
Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, by Brad Bigelow. A story worth telling.
Virginia who?
Here's a little video that attempts to answer that question.
Coming 1 January 2026 from @univnebpress.bsky.social
Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, by Brad Bigelow. A story worth telling.
December 26, 2025 at 3:21 PM
I wrote a book about Virginia Faulkner.
Virginia who?
Here's a little video that attempts to answer that question.
Coming 1 January 2026 from @univnebpress.bsky.social
Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, by Brad Bigelow. A story worth telling.
Virginia who?
Here's a little video that attempts to answer that question.
Coming 1 January 2026 from @univnebpress.bsky.social
Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, by Brad Bigelow. A story worth telling.
Betty Swanwick is best remembered as an illustrator and painter, but her three novelettes will remind many of the black humor of Edward Gorey.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
December 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Betty Swanwick is best remembered as an illustrator and painter, but her three novelettes will remind many of the black humor of Edward Gorey.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
Just published by Everest Yayinlari: a Turkish translation of Gertrude Trevelyan's William's Wife, a grim but gripping novel about the psychological damage of coercive control. Available in English in the Recovered Books series from @bhousepress.bsky.social.
December 25, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Just published by Everest Yayinlari: a Turkish translation of Gertrude Trevelyan's William's Wife, a grim but gripping novel about the psychological damage of coercive control. Available in English in the Recovered Books series from @bhousepress.bsky.social.
The purpose of Christmas is to provide new ways for cats to amuse themselves.
December 25, 2025 at 9:00 PM
The purpose of Christmas is to provide new ways for cats to amuse themselves.
Murder on the Blackboard (1934) was the second of three films featuring the legendary Edna May Oliver as the amateur sleuth and schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers and James Gleason as NYC detective Oscar Piper. None of the Withers movies after Oliver & Gleason had quite the spice of this pair.
December 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Murder on the Blackboard (1934) was the second of three films featuring the legendary Edna May Oliver as the amateur sleuth and schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers and James Gleason as NYC detective Oscar Piper. None of the Withers movies after Oliver & Gleason had quite the spice of this pair.
Lou Gehrig's Last Christmas, a touching letter from the baseball legend's widow, one of a number of unexpected pieces included in Christmas with Ed Sullivan (1959). Perry Como's tale of tomato soup in Cleveland will tug the ol' heartstrings.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
December 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Lou Gehrig's Last Christmas, a touching letter from the baseball legend's widow, one of a number of unexpected pieces included in Christmas with Ed Sullivan (1959). Perry Como's tale of tomato soup in Cleveland will tug the ol' heartstrings.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
Fanny Butcher (longtime Chicago book critic) Wishes You a Merry Christmas.
December 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Fanny Butcher (longtime Chicago book critic) Wishes You a Merry Christmas.
Klappa på, everyone!
December 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Klappa på, everyone!
My Time, and What I've Done with It, by F. C. Burnand (1874).
Could there be a more straightforward title for an autobiography? (Spoiler: it's a parody)
Could there be a more straightforward title for an autobiography? (Spoiler: it's a parody)
December 24, 2025 at 9:00 PM
My Time, and What I've Done with It, by F. C. Burnand (1874).
Could there be a more straightforward title for an autobiography? (Spoiler: it's a parody)
Could there be a more straightforward title for an autobiography? (Spoiler: it's a parody)
"Oh, I knew it would be Snodgrass." Edward Everett Horton meets the canary gangster Nat Pendleton wants to star in his Broadway revue: Annie Snodgrass, AKA Zasu Pitts. From Sing and Like It (1934).
December 24, 2025 at 7:01 PM
"Oh, I knew it would be Snodgrass." Edward Everett Horton meets the canary gangster Nat Pendleton wants to star in his Broadway revue: Annie Snodgrass, AKA Zasu Pitts. From Sing and Like It (1934).
On this date in 1814, Great Britain and United States signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending what we now know as the War of 1812.
December 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM
On this date in 1814, Great Britain and United States signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending what we now know as the War of 1812.
Alistair Cooke's Christmas Eve (1952) is filled with fabulous 1950s illustrations by Marc Simont and three tales by the legendary BBC reporter that were probably better heard than read.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
December 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Alistair Cooke's Christmas Eve (1952) is filled with fabulous 1950s illustrations by Marc Simont and three tales by the legendary BBC reporter that were probably better heard than read.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
From the Tell Us What You Really Think Department:
The English dramatist Douglas Jerrold on his fellow writer Albert Smith (of The Adventures of Mr. Ledbury):
"When he signs his initials he only tells two-thirds of the truth."
The English dramatist Douglas Jerrold on his fellow writer Albert Smith (of The Adventures of Mr. Ledbury):
"When he signs his initials he only tells two-thirds of the truth."
December 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
From the Tell Us What You Really Think Department:
The English dramatist Douglas Jerrold on his fellow writer Albert Smith (of The Adventures of Mr. Ledbury):
"When he signs his initials he only tells two-thirds of the truth."
The English dramatist Douglas Jerrold on his fellow writer Albert Smith (of The Adventures of Mr. Ledbury):
"When he signs his initials he only tells two-thirds of the truth."
Broadway producer Edward Everett Horton finds himself in an unexpected partnership with gangster Nat Pendleton, who's just been overcome by Zasu Pitts's singing of a dreadful ode to Mother and now wants to put her in a Broadway show. From Sing and Like It (1934).
December 23, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Broadway producer Edward Everett Horton finds himself in an unexpected partnership with gangster Nat Pendleton, who's just been overcome by Zasu Pitts's singing of a dreadful ode to Mother and now wants to put her in a Broadway show. From Sing and Like It (1934).
When the Germans invade Yugoslavia in 1940, Englishwoman Louisa Rayner and her husband sought refuge in a remote rural hamlet. Women in a Village (1957) is far less well known than Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon but a more accurate view of Serbia and its people.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
December 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM
When the Germans invade Yugoslavia in 1940, Englishwoman Louisa Rayner and her husband sought refuge in a remote rural hamlet. Women in a Village (1957) is far less well known than Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon but a more accurate view of Serbia and its people.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
I suspect a fair number of us share Broderick Crawford's sentiment this year. (Pastiche by the great Cris Shapan)
December 22, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I suspect a fair number of us share Broderick Crawford's sentiment this year. (Pastiche by the great Cris Shapan)
"I belong to the world!" "Ya probably did before I took up wid ya." Nat Pendleton, the sentimental lunk of a gangster and his girlfriend Pert Kelton, from the opening of the Pre-Code comic gem Sing and Like It (1934). (Also, "With legs like mine, I couldn't help but be a great actress!")
December 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
"I belong to the world!" "Ya probably did before I took up wid ya." Nat Pendleton, the sentimental lunk of a gangster and his girlfriend Pert Kelton, from the opening of the Pre-Code comic gem Sing and Like It (1934). (Also, "With legs like mine, I couldn't help but be a great actress!")
Miklós Bánffy's Transylvanian Trilogy is one of the most engrossing novel series of the early 20th century, a saga of Hungarian society before WWI. Jan Morris wrote that "it is gloriously, addictively, compulsively readable.”
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
December 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Miklós Bánffy's Transylvanian Trilogy is one of the most engrossing novel series of the early 20th century, a saga of Hungarian society before WWI. Jan Morris wrote that "it is gloriously, addictively, compulsively readable.”
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
A stylish bookplate. Adeline Lobdell Atwater Pynchon was an American suffragette and art connoisseur. She wrote a book titled Dinner Table Art for the Tired Businessman and the unpublished Autobiography of an Extrovert.
December 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
A stylish bookplate. Adeline Lobdell Atwater Pynchon was an American suffragette and art connoisseur. She wrote a book titled Dinner Table Art for the Tired Businessman and the unpublished Autobiography of an Extrovert.
I've seen over 700 Pre-Code movies, and hands down Sing and Like It (1934) has to be the funniest so far. A cast entirely made up of character actors, which may have something to do with how good it is. But the script by Marion Dix and Laird Doyle is chock full of gems I'll share in the next days.
December 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I've seen over 700 Pre-Code movies, and hands down Sing and Like It (1934) has to be the funniest so far. A cast entirely made up of character actors, which may have something to do with how good it is. But the script by Marion Dix and Laird Doyle is chock full of gems I'll share in the next days.
Who says old books don't relate to life today?
December 21, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Who says old books don't relate to life today?
A full-page ad by Hutchinson's in a 1940 edition of the Times Literary Supplement included the six titles below, part of the "First Novel Library." When I went to hunt them down in 2019, I found that most survived only in the British Library and other registry libraries.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
December 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
A full-page ad by Hutchinson's in a 1940 edition of the Times Literary Supplement included the six titles below, part of the "First Novel Library." When I went to hunt them down in 2019, I found that most survived only in the British Library and other registry libraries.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
Killer (literally) names of women from a 1925 census of the Blackfeet Agency in Montana.
Killsinthenight Everybodytalksabout
Naked Signs Killsacrosstheway
Marie Killsincenter Iron
Cecile Takesgun
Kate Crossguns
Yellowbird Takesgunup
Jane Goodstabbing
Killsinthenight Everybodytalksabout
Naked Signs Killsacrosstheway
Marie Killsincenter Iron
Cecile Takesgun
Kate Crossguns
Yellowbird Takesgunup
Jane Goodstabbing
December 20, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Killer (literally) names of women from a 1925 census of the Blackfeet Agency in Montana.
Killsinthenight Everybodytalksabout
Naked Signs Killsacrosstheway
Marie Killsincenter Iron
Cecile Takesgun
Kate Crossguns
Yellowbird Takesgunup
Jane Goodstabbing
Killsinthenight Everybodytalksabout
Naked Signs Killsacrosstheway
Marie Killsincenter Iron
Cecile Takesgun
Kate Crossguns
Yellowbird Takesgunup
Jane Goodstabbing