“Samuel Larned had lived one whole year on crackers and the next exclusively on apples. One Fruitlander believed that clothes hindered spiritual growth and that the light of day was pernicious. Another crowed like a cock at midnight if a happy thought struck him. One, holding that words only betrayed the true spirit, greeted the rest with ‘Good morning, damn you.’” Now reading in the NYRB office: The Stammering Century by Gilbert Seldes.