Reading List: A Brief History of Epic Parties

No doubt you are on your way to one right now: an epic party, a night to end all nights. But will your epic party be as legendary as those thrown attended by Truman Capote, Cher Horowitz, Jay Gatsby, Jordan Belfort, Silvio Berlusconi, or the kids from Saturday Night Fever?

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 31, 2013

A Trip to Japan in Sixteen Minutes

The story of Sadakichi Hartmann, a Japan-born poet who had befriended everyone from Walt Whitman to Ezra Pound and John Barrymore—and who once attempted to stage the first-ever “perfume concert” in New York:

“But no one had ever heard of a perfume concert. It was an invention so faddish the newspapers had inked themselves in excitement and still managed indifference by the second column. ‘All lovers of good smells are expected to patronize the concert,’ one hopeful feature began. However, ‘It may be that after a time the olfactory nerve of the New York gatherings will become jaded, and will require smells of more and more pungency.’ It was suggested Mr. Hartmann take a trip to Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal.”

Source: The Believer
Published: May 3, 2013
Length: 22 minutes (5,531 words)