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Thursday January
31
STICKING
TO THE TRAIL: How to have a successful career as a writer?
Novelist/playwright Michael Frayn says: "The only advice that
I could think of giving to a young writer is to write the same
thing over and over again, changing things very slightly and going
on delivering it until people accept it. Very simply, people want
reliability and continuity in a writer. If you buy cornflakes
you want cornflakes." The
Guardian (UK) 01/31/02
ANTI-THEFT:
After the rash of high profile authors recently caught plagiarizing,
one critic wonders how to stop plagiarism. Shame, that's how.
Letting authors make financial settlements with those they have
stolen from doesn't help the reader. Slate
01/30/02
THE
OFFICIAL POET "The official poet laureate, appointed
by the British royal family for over 300 years and rewarded with
a 'butt of canary wine, to be paid annually,' is an object of
mild scorn for literary skeptics and antimonarchists alike. But
at a time when published opinion is much regulated by professional
spin doctors, this institution can be used to promote a reexamination
of the role played by poets and poetry in public life."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
01/31/02
MAKE
IT STOP: "Another complaint against Stephen Ambrose has
emerged. This one dates back to 1970, when fellow historian Cornelius
Ryan accused him of a 'rather graceless falsification' in Ambrose's
book, The Supreme Commander. The allegations were first
reported Tuesday on Forbes.com." The
Plain Dealer (AP) 01/31/02
SOME
VERY UNPOETIC SOUR GRAPES: "Winning the coveted T.S.
Eliot Prize last week has confirmed Anne Carson's status as one
of the most celebrated and controversial of contemporary poets.
Soon after the prize was announced, Carson, who teaches classics
at McGill University in Montreal, was denounced in Britain's Guardian
newspaper by eminent poetry critic Robert Potts for writing 'doggerel'
that mixes 'an occasional (and occasionally cliched) lyricism,
some fashionable philosophizing and an almost artless grafting-on
of academic materials.'" National
Post (Canada) 01/31/02
Wednesday January
30
STEPHEN
KING SAYS NO MORE NOVELS: Stephen King has a new novel coming
out. So what? He publishes so many books in a year that he even
made up a pseudonym so publishers could handle the overflow. So
it may be his last. "You get to a point where you ... basically
recycle stuff," he says. "I've seen it in my own work.
People when they read Buick Eight are going to think Christine.
It's about a car that's not normal, OK?" A couple more projects,
"Then that's it. I'm done. Done writing books."
CNN 01/29/02
Tuesday January 29
LITERARY
NOMINATIONS: The National Book Critics Circle announces its
award nominees. Heading up the fiction list is Jonathan Franzen's
The Corrections. Other nominees include WG Sebald's Austerlitz,
Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, Colson Whitehead's John Henry
Days, and Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship,
Loveship, Marriage. Evidently Franzen's dustup with Oprah
earlier this winter hasn't hurt The Corrections. The book
already won the National Book Award, and sales have almost reached
the 1 million mark - an impressive number for a work of literary
fiction. Nando
Times (AP) 01/28/02
PLAGIARISM
AND TECHNOLOGY: In the last month, two prominent American
historians have faced charges of plagiarism, and lately, it seems
that not a month goes by without some well-known author or other
standing accused. It's not that the problem of plagiarism has
become appreciably more widespread than it used to be - it's that
new computer programs can compare texts far more efficiently than
ever before. San Francisco Chronicle
01/29/02
STANDARDS
OF FAIRNESS: A new copyright law has been passed in Germany
that mandates that publishers must pay freelance writers a "fair"
compensation that is "standard in the trade." The big
question is how this will be enacted. What is fair? and if "standard"
practice is unreasonably low, will it be fair? Perhaps predictably,
publishers are unhappy with the new law. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 01/29/02
PIPPI
LONGSTOCKING CREATOR DIES: Astrid Lindgren, the Swedish writer
whose 'Pippi Longstocking' books won the hearts of children and
adults the world over, has died at her home in Stockholm at the
age of 94. "Lindgren's works were translated into dozens
of languages, ranging from Azerbaijani to Zulu, and sold more
than 130 million copies worldwide." Dallas
Morning News (AP) 01/28/02 (one-time
registration required for access)
Monday January 28
LISTEN
UP: MP3 books are becoming popular - whole books can be downloaded
onto tiny devices that can be reloaded over and over again. The
format is especially popular with "with commuters, foreign
students learning English and the visually impaired." The
Independent (UK) 01/26/02
IT'S
NOT PLAGIARISM, IT'S A TRIBUTE: Olaf Olafsson is "vice
chairman of Time Warner Digital Media, father of the Sony PlayStation
and an acclaimed novelist." But his latest book contains
numerous passages stolen word for word from "the late, great
Bay Area food writer M.F.K. Fisher." Contacted about the
copying, Olafsson says what he did wasn't copy but pay "tribute."
He says that "readers familiar with Fisher, who died in 1992,
will recognize the borrowed passages and understand he's paying
homage." Siliconvalley.com
01/27/02
HOW/WHY
TO READ: Who needs a book to tell them how to read? "Professorial
how-to-read books have always struck me as eminently avoidable,
in part because such lamentations are wearisome, even if not altogether
untrue. If the lay reader knows enough to know that she needs
to pick up a book on reading, why must her self-knowledge be met
with a harangue against philistinism? Besides, all criticism teaches
us how to read; literary essays instruct best when they are not
overtly instructive. Or so I thought."
The New York Times 01/27/02
THE
AUTHOR, NOT THE PERSON: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph
J. Ellis canceled his book tour last week. Last year it was revealed
that Ellis had lied about having served in Vietnam during the
war, and Ellis was sure to be questioned about this on the tour.
In Seattle, there have also been objections to Ellis speaking
at an author series at the Seattle Public Library. But hosts of
the event have decided to go ahead with the appearance in February.
"It seemed to us that Ellis' personal life - what he did or didn't
do as a teacher - really has nothing to do with the scholarship
that went into his books about Jefferson and the founding brothers."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 01/28/02
Sunday January 27
RENOVATING
OUT THE LIBRARY EXPERIENCE: The New York Public Library of
the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center has a great collection.
It recently reopened after an extensive renovation. "But
— a sign of the times? — the research division is no longer a
pleasurable place in which to read a book or listen to a recording."
The New York Times 01/27/02
Friday January 25
CALL IT
BURNSDAY: Today's the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns
(he'd be 243), and in his home, "Fuelled by haggis and whisky,
revellers recite Rabbie's verses in celebration of his life, work
and love of Scotland." Find out how much you know about Scottish
writers (including at least one of the awful ones). The
Guardian (UK) 01/25/02
THE
BEST BOOK REVIEW? "The Times Literary Supplement - known
universally as the TLS - is a hundred years old this month. From
its first densely printed, eight-page edition of Jan. 17, 1902,
to its special bumper 48-page centenary issue currently on newsstands,
it has carved out a unique position in the world of papers and
journals as the reviewer of all that is best and most important
in new books, from novels and poetry to academic studies and biographies."
Los Angeles Times 01/24/02
E-TEXTS:
University presses and libraries at 12 American universities have
teamed up on an e-publishing plan for scholarly books. "
The hope is that university presses in the consortium might one
day offer all of their books in electronic form in a version that
could be linked to a joint online library catalog that the group
already operates. It could quickly become be a sizable collection:
The university presses publish about 1,000 new books each year."
Chronicle of Higher Education 01/24/02
TRANSLATING
THE UNTRANSLATABLE: The poet Czeslaw Milosz once wrote that
"exile is the worst fate that may befall a poet, since poetry
cannot live without its roots in native speech," and another
poet, Robert Frost, wrote that "Poetry is what gets lost
in translation." Still, translators continue trying to wrestle
the poetry of one language into another, and sometimes bring it
off. The Economist 01/24/02
Thursday January
24
WHO'S
"BORROWING" FROM WHOM? The issue of plagiarism is
more complex than black-and-white. "On the one hand, formal
rules against plagiarism grow ever more abundant and ever more
stringent (even if no more original), and Op-Ed columnists wax
furious in their condemnation of plagiarism by public officials.
On the other hand, many Op-Ed columns are written by individuals
other than the one whose name appears on the byline, and for that
matter many newspaper stories are more-or-less verbatim versions
of press releases sent out by political organizations, trade associations,
or other interest groups." The
Idler 01/23/02
AND
THIS AFFECTS LAW ENFORCEMENT HOW? Okay, follow closely: The
police department of Penryn, Pennsylvania, is boycotting this
year's YMCA triathlon, refusing to direct traffic and stand around
looking important. Why? The YMCA apparently reads Harry Potter
books to children. So? Well, the wee wizard is all satanic and
stuff, y'know. Nando Times (AP) 01/24/02
Wednesday January
23
BLACK
HOLES: "Six months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that publishers don't own the rights to online freelance articles.
The publishers have responded by purging freelance articles -
sometimes entire newspaper archives - from online databases. Almost
20 years' worth of newspaper history, a vital source of information
for those studying history, politics, society, the media, and
other subjects, is shot through with more holes than a block of
Swiss cheese. Scholars worry that they might find holes in their
research. No one in academe seems to know how many articles, and
which ones, are missing from the databases. After all, online
databases, with their ethereal form, aren't like broadsheets of
newsprint - you can't open them like you would a morning paper
and see the holes cut out." Chronicle
of Higher Education 01/21/02
GOODWIN
CHARGED WITH COPYING: Now it's historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's
turn to be accused of plagiarism. A letter to The Weekly Standard
(the publication which revealed historian Stephen Ambrose's plagiarism
two weeks ago) pointed out that "Goodwin's The Fitzgeralds
and the Kennedys borrowed with insufficient attribution from
three earlier works by other authors." The magazine's "examination
of the works in question confirmed the correspondent's allegation."
The Weekly Standard 01/28/02
- BY
WAY OF EXPLANATION: ''All that really happened was she sent
me a letter saying not all the passages that relied on her work
had been as fully footnoted as she would have liked,'' said
Goodwin. ''I agreed with her.'' A monetary settlement was paid.
Boston Globe 01/22/02
- WHAT'S
THE STANDARD? "Goodwin has not only committed plagiarism,
but lied about whether it was plagiarism (and, incidentally,
paid hush money to one of the people she plagiarized)."
Slate 01/22/02
- A
SIMPLE TRUTH: Whew - it's tough to defend those who "borrowed"
the words of others without the proper credit. But the principle
stands: "If you didn't write it, you need to put quote
marks around it. It really is that simple." MobyLives
01/22/02
THE TRADITION OF
POETRY IN ARABIA: "Poets from all over Arabia would recite
their poems in front of judges. Each year the festival’s winning
poem would be transcribed in golden letters and hung on the door
of Ka’bah in Mecca for the whole year. It was like the Nobel Prize
of ancient Arabia. In every Arab country every day, poets appear
on television, on the radio, or in the newspaper. Every single
newspaper in the Arab world every day has poetry. Poetry is the
essence of Arab culture." Humanities
January-February 2002
NOVELS
- AND NOVELISTS - BURIED IN THE PAST: What's happened to our
novelists lately? They're so busy robbing the grave, as it were
- writing about characters from the past, instead of focusing
on our present world. And the problem seems to be worst of all
in Australia. The
Age (Melbourne) 01/21/02
Tuesday January 22
CANADIAN
WINS ELIOT PRIZE: "Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson
has been named the winner of the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry for
2001. Ms Carson's 'poignant' and 'unique' collection The Beauty
of the Husband was the best work of new poetry published in
the UK and Ireland last year, a panel of poets has decided."
BBC 01/21/02
KIDS'
CORNER: "The story of an orphan living under a bridge
in 12th century Korea won top honors in children's literature
Monday from the American Library Association. "A Single Shard,"
by Linda Sue Park, won the Newbery Medal, awarded annually to
the author of the most distinguished contribution to American
literature for children... David Wiesner, illustrator and author
of "The Three Pigs," won the Randolph Caldecott Medal, awarded
each year to the artist of the most distinguished American picture
book for children." Orlando Sentinel
01/21/02
THE
CLASSICS, ONLINE: "Project Gutenberg, named after the
inventor of the printing press, Johann Gutenberg, is an online,
worldwide database of books in electronic form - and it's free.
Since 1971, volunteers have transposed or scanned more than 4000
books on to the US site." The
Age (Melbourne) 01/22/02
- SPEAKING
OF GUTENBERG: Not much is known about the life of the man
who invented the printing press. "It is unclear exactly
when Gutenberg was born, how he was schooled or whether he married.
The date of his death, 1468, is known only from an uncorroborated
note casually scribbled by an acquaintance on a printed book's
flyleaf. The circumstances under which he arrived at his two
most important ideas - the notion of movable type itself and
the hand-mould technology needed for the rapid mass-casting
of the letters - have gone unrecorded."
Financial Times 01/22/02
HOW
TO CREATE AWKWARDNESS: Few things in life are as deadly as
a close friend's book recommendation. The enjoyment of literature
is an intensely personal activity, and one person's life-changing
page-turner may be another's deadly bore. And the walls of friendship
come tumbling down... National Post
(Canada) 01/22/02
Monday January 21
STUCK
IN THE PAST: Why are so many of Australia's best contemporary
novels set in the past? It's the rare story that reflects life
that is familiar to us today. Is it that "we're not the most
powerful nation on earth and so do not find, like the Americans
do, power and significance dwelling in our most ordinary things?''
The Age (Melbourne) 01/21/02
SO
WHAT'S A LITTLE PLAGIARISM...: Historian Stephen Ambrose may
be scorned for his plagiarism revealed in the past few weeks.
But in his hometown of New Orleans, few seem to care. The Times-Picayune
wrote in an editorial Jan. 11: "He has been 'a great friend
to this community ... No one wants to see Mr. Ambrose's numerous
achievements diminished by the present allegations." Others wonder:
"So what if he plagiarized? Everyone plagiarizes to some extent.
He has raised awareness of history among a whole new population
of Americans." Nando
Times (AP) 01/21/02
Sunday January 20
TO
CATCH A PLAGIARIST: Why did it take so long for historian-plagiarist
Stephen Ambrose to get caught? More importantly, why did it take
a conservative magazine editor to expose the wrongdoing of one
of right-wing America's biggest intellectual apologists? "Could
it be that the left is too indifferent to American military history
to bother catching one of its best-selling mythologizers with
his pants down? Or does resentment of blockbuster book sales cut
across party lines, afflicting conservatism's detractors and its
supporters alike with touching bipartisanship?" San
Francisco Chronicle 01/19/02
THE
WORST SEX EVER: "Writing a sex scene with authenticity
of emotion is the literary equivalent to the struggle visual artists
have in painting hands and feet. As with the act itself, performance
anxiety can lead to overwriting in an author who is trying too
hard, or limpness in a writer unable to rise above self-consciousness."
Herein, the best examples of such literary impotence, as judged
by a panel of Canadian publishers, and featuring such gems as
"Ride my stallion, Morag." The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/19/02
Friday January 18
MORE
AMBROSE: Yet another book has been added to the Stephen Ambrose
plagiarism list. "Despite Ambrose's continued dominance of
the bestseller lists, 2002 is shaping up as a year to forget for
America's favorite celebrity historian. He apologized immediately
for not putting quotation marks around the purloined Wild Blue
passages; since then, as the other five books have been identified
one or two at a time, he generally has declined to comment."
Forbes.com 01/17/02
- CAREER
EFFECT? Some book world people doubt that publicity about
Ambrose's plagiarism, though embarrassing for Ambrose, would
hurt sales of his bestselling history books. Indeed, it "might
actually end up boosting sales by attracting more attention
to his books. In any case, the best-selling historian will remain
a hot literary property. 'Any agent or publisher would be glad
to grab him'." Forbes.com 01/11/02
PLAGIARISM,
CHINESE EDITION: Wang Mingming, an elite professor at Beijing
University, and credited in China with reviving interest in sociology,
has been "accused of using parts of a 1987 edition of Cultural
Anthropology, a widely used textbook by William A. Haviland
of the University of Vermont, in his own 1998 book. Wang translated
Haviland's book into Chinese in 1987 with his permission. The
official Xinhua News Agency says Wang has been stripped of his
teaching posts." Nando
Times (AP) 01/17/02
S'BETTER
TO LOOK GOOD? "Why are so many people paying hard-earned
cash for books they can barely begin to understand? Part of the
answer, surely, is vanity. A Hawking or Greene sitting on the
coffee table--preferably with a few pages conspicuously bent back
at the corners--sends a powerful message to visiting friends,
prospective dates, and (above all) to oneself, that an intellect
is present in the house. Whether or not you read them, possession
alone looks good. Intellectual vanity is as potent a force as
the sartorial variety." Los Angeles
Times 01/13/02
MAKING
RARE BOOKS ACCESSIBLE: "Octavo Corp. and its staff of
eight have revolutionized the conservation and accessibility of
rare books, using technology in the service of history. This month
they're starting work on the most famous book in the U.S., the
Library of Congress' pristine copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Through
a combination of hardware - lights, cameras, and a lot of servers
- and software, the company produces digital reproductions of
rare books, which it then sells to consumers." SFWeekly
01/17/02
Thursday January
17
ART
OF THE NOVEL: There's been a rash of novels lately in which
writers have found the inspiration for their story, or their characters,
in famous (or not-so-famous) paintings. "For a writer, an
intriguing picture hot-wires the storytelling engine. Before committing
word one to paper, you already know the time, place and setting.
You not only see what your main character looks like, you know
her class." Washington Post 01/17/02
CHILDERS
ON AMBROSE: Historian Thomas Childers speaks out on Stephen
Ambrose's plagiarism of his work: "I was surprised and disappointed.
I was bewildered, at first, as to how he would have the chutzpah
to do this. He didn't have to do this, and I wasn't flattered.
My wife, Kristin, was angry enough for the both of us." But
Childers decided to say nothing: "Do I really want to be
the scholarly guy rapping the famous guy on the knuckles in a
schoolmarmish way?" Philadelphia
Inquirer 01/16/02
- GETTING
IT VERY WRONG: World War II vets aren't as upset about the
copying as they are about all the mistakes about the war in
Ambrose's books. "The real problem is that Ambrose gets
key things about World War II wrong all by himself. That Ambrose,
America's most popular war historian, has published eight books
in five years is seen by them as not so much an excuse for the
alleged errors as the reason." Philadelphia
Inquirer 01/15/02
NOBELIST
CAMILO CELA, 85: "Spanish writer Camilo Jose Cela, winner
of the 1989 Nobel Prize for literature, has died in Madrid from
respiratory and coronary failure. With his first novel, published
in 1946, Cela became a leader of a straightforward style of writing,
called tremendismo, which clashed with the lyricism that had characterised
writers of the previous generation in Spain."
BBC 01/17/02
Wednesday January
16
WHY
STEALING'S ALWAYS BAD: Historian Stephen Ambrose has been
caught plagiarizing in at least four of his books. This is a very
serious offense, so it's off to the penalty box for him. The media
has made a big deal of this, but historians haven't condemned
him with the vehemence one would expect. Why? Several reasons,
but "a comparison of the Ambrose and Monaghan books found
that, despite picking up sentences here and there, Ambrose wasn't
wedded to Monaghan's work. He had synthesized material from many
sources and was producing his own version of Custer's life."
Chicago Tribune 01/16/02
THE
PROBLEM BEQUEST: A small library in Massachusetts gets a million-dollar
bequest from a letter carrier who died in 1940 to buy books. But
the library is stuffed full and has no room to put any new volumes.
What it really needs is to expand - but should the terms of the
bequest be broken? National Post (AP)
01/16/02
Tuesday January 15
STARTING
OVER: "In late September, Phyllis Grann shocked the book
world by announcing she would leave Penguin Putnam, the $750 million
publishing empire she assembled over 25 years and could not have
dominated more completely if her name were on the building. Most
executives with her career would have simply retired. She was
the first woman CEO in publishing, and the head of an imprint
that's reputed to be 50 percent more profitable than any of its
peers. Instead of bowing out, however, Grann trotted out F. Scott
Fitzgerald's crack about American lives' having no second acts,
vowed to have one of her own, then sat back to watch the frenzy
of speculation about her next move." Then she joined Random
House. New
York Magazine 01/14/02
LARKIN'S
MONEY GOES TO CHURCH: Poet Philip Larkin, who "declined
the poet laureateship a year before he died in 1985, remains best
known for his reverently agnostic poem Churchgoing. He
also said: 'The Bible is a load of balls of course - but very
beautiful'." So his friends and fans were amused recently when
£1 million of his legacy was willed to the Church of England.
The Guardian (UK) 01/12/02
Monday January 14
WHY
PLAGIARISM MATTERS: The charges of plagiarism are mounting
against historian Stephen Ambrose. " Ambrose's patriots can't
fall back on the factory defense anymore: Two of the cases occurred
when Ambrose was an obscure professor, before he became Stephen
Ambrose Industries. Ambrose is more defiant than apologetic. Ambrose's
assertion that he's not a thief is ludicrous. One plagiarism is
careless. Two is a pattern. Four, five, or more is pathology.
You can bet that historians jealous of Ambrose (that is, all historians)
are this minute combing the rest of his corpus for more evidence
of sticky fingers." Slate
01/11/02
AND
THE BOOK BUSINESS IS INTELLECTUAL, RIGHT? Lest anyone forget,
the book business is run by individuals - people who can be as
petty, self-serving, obtuse and wrong-headed as the rest of us.
MobyLives nominates 2001's most misguided figures. MobyLives
01/14/02
WHAT'S
LEFT OVER: Most books at some point get remaindered. "The
common misconception is that remainders are 'bad' books. Some
may be, but the reality is almost every author - Booker and Giller
winners, and names like Atwood and Urquhart - have titles that
have been thrown into the bins. And they're the gems that voracious
readers eagerly forage for.Remainders are an important part of
our business, accounting for at least 10 per cent of overall sales
" The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/11/02
A
LESSON IN HUMILITY: "To write The Best Book Ever Written
is not a ridiculous aspiration. Ridiculous would be to aspire
to write a 'flawed, two-dimensional and structurally awkward'
novel. 'Pretentious twaddle' is not the kind of star to which
a wagon can be very usefully hitched. Mid-list leaves something
to be desired as a career goal. There is much to be gained by
setting out to write The Best Book Ever Written, not the least
of which is that once every millennium, somebody might actually
do it. However, as commendable as it is to aim high, and as useful
a motivator as unreasonable ambition may prove to be, the kind
of literary pride that makes writers think that readers will drop
everything to read them is rarely helpful once a book is published.
For all but the rare exceptions, publication is a crash course
in humility." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/11/02
Sunday January 13
THE
WANDERING PRIZE: "In the starry firmament of literary
prizes, from the distant twinkling of Somerset Maugham to the
intergalactic majesty of Orange, to the autumn brilliance of Booker,
Whitbread is the wandering planet: wreathed in vapour, beyond
radio contact and thrillingly weird, the object of fascinated
annual terrestrial speculation." The
Observer (UK) 01/13/02
PUTTING
MARK TWAIN IN HIS PLACE: Was Mark Twain America's greatest
writer? Ken Burns' new documentary forces the question. "Here's
a guy who wrote such classics as Tom Sawyer, such politically
charged novels as Pudd'nhead Wilson and such eye-opening
travelogues as The Innocents Abroad. He also had the kind
of grand tragedies in his personal life that we expect from great
writers: losing loved ones at a young age, going broke by investing
in one silly invention after another, struggling with clinical
depression. But there's a problem in putting Twain at the head
of the class. He was funny. Too funny."
Minneapolis Star Tribune 01/13/02
Friday January 11
AMBROSE
- TOO PROLIFIC TO BE ORIGINAL? As accusations about plagiarism
mount against popular historian/author Stephen Ambrose, checking
out Ambrose's books has become a cottage industry. He's written
a lot of books - too many too quickly, say some critics, to be
reliable. "In seven years, Ambrose has published nine books
of history, plus the eighth edition of a co-authored survey of
American foreign policy. In the last two years alone, he's published
four books, including The Wild Blue and Nothing Like
It in the World. Many of his books have become bestsellers."
Washington Post 01/11/02
THE
HALLMARK POET: Poet Maya Angelou has a new job - writing greeting
cards for Hallmark. "If I'm America's poet, or one of them, then
I want to be in people's hands. All people's hands, people who
would never buy a book." Some samples? "Life is a glorious banquet,
a limitless and delicious buffet." Or how about: "The wise woman
wishes to be no one's enemy, the wise woman refuses to be anyone's
victim." USAToday
01/10/02
BOOKS
ON THE HALF SHELL: You see them everywhere now, these little
half-efforts meant to be taken in during a pedicure or while in
a holding pattern over Providence, from The One Minute Manager
(111 pages, $20) to Who Moved My Cheese? - 77 glorious
pages for $19.95. There is also the very successful Penguin Lives
series, which allows the reader to congratulate him- or herself
on having read a biography of Woodrow Wilson when in reality the
mark has absorbed a lovely, but brief, essay by Louis Auchincloss
and paid $20 for the privilege." Boston
Globe 01/10/02
AND 'TWAS
EVER THUS: James Boswell, perhaps the best-known-ever biographer,
was "a rash and impulsive soul, easily foxed, fuzzy-brained,
vastly bipolar and a martyr to booze, gambling and rabid fornication."
On a winter evening in 1774, he noted in his diary, "Much
intoxicated. Found myself bouncing down an almost perpendicular
stone stair. Could not stop but when I came to the bottom of it,
fell with a good deal of violence, which sobered me much."
So he went home to write. The
Irish Times 01/08/02
Thursday January
10
THOSE
OTHER SHOES KEEP DROPPING: Poor Stephen Ambrose. People keep
accusing him of lifting material from other sources for his own
books, but not giving credit. Charges three and four complain
that his book, "Citizen Soldier, and Part 3 of his
Richard Nixon trilogy, contain passages similar to those in other
texts." Ambrose was reported to be unsure whether any of
his other books - he's published more than 20 - have similar problems.
Washington Post 01/10/02
- Previously:
MORE
AMBROSE ALLEGATIONS: "A second book by best-selling
historian Stephen Ambrose is being cited for having material
that was allegedly copied from another text. Forbes.com is reporting
that Ambrose's Crazy Horse and Custer contains sections
similar to Jay Monaghan's Custer. A representative for Ambrose
said Tuesday there would be no immediate comment. Anchor Books,
which publishes the paperback edition of Crazy Horse and
Custer, also declined immediate comment." Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 01/09/02
NY'S
DISAPPEARING BOOKSTORES: What's happening to Manhattan's independent
book stores? They're closing, that's what. "Whatever the
factors—rent spikes, chain domination, reading-allergic citizenry,
publishers' high price tags—it was hard for a bookstore lover
not to notice all the closings in 2001."
Village Voice 01/09/02
IN
THE CROSSHAIRS: "Biography is not a pretty business,
and biographers, by and large, are a devious, unscrupulous bunch.
I would not trust any of us, were I unlucky enough to be the hunted
rather than the hunter." The
Age (Melbourne) 01/10/02
Wednesday January
9
LIBRARIANS
TO THE RESCUE: Publisher HarperCollins was ready to pulp Michael
Moore's new book for its criticisms of George Bush (among other
things) and never release it. But a librarian heard about Moore's
plight and rallied other librarians to the cause, and now the
book is finally getting into stores. Salon
01/07/02
MOVEABLE
SLUSH PILE: Publishers are inundated with thousands of manuscripts
each year. Of those, only a few ever see their way into print.
More and more the onus on filtering out manuscripts is falling
not on publishers but on agents. "Formerly, writers toiled
in garrets and sent their work to publishers, who eventually gave
the thumbs up or down. As publishers' resources have shrunk and
been redirected, they have abdicated that crucial gatekeeper's
task to others: agents, mainly, a small number of award judges,
and manuscript assessment services."
Sydney Morning Herald 01/09/02
HECK,
JUST READ 'EM ALL: Last year, the Chicago Public Library initiated
a campaign to get everyone in the city (a good percentage of them,
anyway) to read the same book over the same summer in order to
promote reading and literature in general. The book was Harper
Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Now, it's time to select a
book for the second year of the program, and public response could
not be more enthusiastic. And therein lies the problem - no one
can agree on one book. Chicago Tribune
01/09/02
MORE
AMBROSE ALLEGATIONS: "A second book by best-selling historian
Stephen Ambrose is being cited for having material that was allegedly
copied from another text. Forbes.com is reporting that Ambrose's
Crazy Horse and Custer contains sections similar to Jay Monaghan's
Custer. A representative for Ambrose said Tuesday there would
be no immediate comment. Anchor Books, which publishes the paperback
edition of Crazy Horse and Custer, also declined immediate comment."
Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 01/09/02
Tuesday January 8
A
SUBJECTIVE CRIME: Plagiarism has always been hard to define,
and the case of Stephen Ambrose emphasizes the point. Ambrose
reprinted unattributed passages from another book in his latest
tome, for which he has apologized. But the New York Times
reprinted nearly verbatim the allegations against Ambrose from
the magazine they first appeared in, also without attribution.
Is that plagiarism? Does context matter? And for good measure,
is Ambrose's apology and promise to correct later editions even
remotely enough to make things right? Philadelphia
Inquirer 01/08/02
NEWSFLASH
- PEOPLE LIKE THEIR BOOKS TO INCLUDE PAPER: It would be nice
to say that it seemed like a good idea at the time, but in truth,
the "e-books" phenomenon has been one of the economic
downturn's most predictable casualties. Dozens of companies, from
global publishers to internet-based startups, leaped into the
e-book fray a couple of years ago, with all the usual pronouncements
about how the new tehnology would change everything about
the way we read. These days, the small companies are gone, the
big ones are downsizing, and e-books are considered a vast money
pit. Publishers Weekly 01/07/02
THE
SLUR THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME: "Regardless of spelling,
pronunciation, or intention, arguably no word in the American
lexicon conjures more incendiary emotion and history than 'nigger.'
Considered so barbed and venomous it is widely referred to as
'the n-word,' in many corners uttering its two syllables aloud
is tantamount to yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater. Still, it's
the only title Randall Kennedy considered for his latest book.
Both informative and infuriating, 'Nigger' is an anatomy of an
epithet, which, through four centuries, has lost none of its potency
to enrage and fuel fierce debate." Boston
Globe 01/08/02
Monday January 7
AMBROSE
ADMITS COPYING WORK:
Over the weekend Stephen Ambrose admitted lifting passages from
Thomas Childers' book for his best-selling history of World War
II The Wild Blue. "I made a mistake for which I am sorry.
It will be corrected in future editions of the book."
The
New York Times 01/06/02
-
DID HISTORIAN AMBROSE STEAL SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK? Stephen
Ambrose is "perhaps America's most popular historian and
one of its most prolific." His most recent book, climbing
the New York Times' Bestseller list, focuses on a B-24 crew
in World War II. Weedkly Standard columnist Fred Barnes contends
Ambrose copied passages of the book from a 1995 book by Thomas
Childers. Weekly Standard 01/04/02
- THE
CASE AGAINST AMBROSE: "In an interview, Professor Childers,
who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, said he, too,
had concluded that Mr. Ambrose borrowed excessively. 'I felt
sort of disappointed,' he said." The
New York Times 01/05/02
Sunday January 6
CLUES
TO THE FRENCH MIND: A French poll listing of the 50 greatest
books of the 20th Century says some important things about the
French. First, about half of the books on the list aren't French.
Second - none of the English books were written before World War
II. And there are no important contemporary American authors represented.
"They still have a rather Francophone understanding of English
and American literature. As nothing, of course, to American and
British parochialism in respect of foreign literature. But also
I detect a kind of eagerness to be part of a wider world. Many
French people think that France must engage more fully with the
outside world: they are alarmed that the Anglophone world is leaving
them behind. This world of hundreds of millions of English speakers
seems in its unstoppable immensity to them to be consigning France
to a sort of museum culture." The
Guardian (UK) 01/05/02
Friday January 4
SURPRISE
WHITBREAD WINNER: "Patrick Neate has won the Whitbread
novel award with his second book, Twelve Bar Blues, beating
strong favourite Ian McEwan. The surprise winner receives £5,000
in prize money and goes on to compete for the Whitbread Book
of the Year - worth £25,000 - alongside the other Whitbread
winners and the winner of the Whitbread Children's Book of the
Year." BBC
01/04/02
-
NEATE
SURPRISE: "When my book was published it did not make
the barest ripple on the surface of the nation's literature,
so to win an award beating Ian McEwan and Helen Dunmore
is just absurd." BBC
01/04/02
BULLISH
ON PUBLISHING: The Dow Jones might have had an off year in
2001 (the index fell 7.1 percent), but publishing companies did
well with their stock prices. The Publishers Weekly index
tracking stock prices of 22 publishing companies rose by 10.3
percent. Book manufacturers and book retailers had a very strong
year while e-publishing struggled. Publishers
Weekly 01/02/02
POETIC
PALLOR: What's going on with the American Academy of Poets?
Last fall it laid off employees and fired William Wadsworth, its
longtime director. "During Wadsworth's 12-year tenure, the
Academy launched an array of new programs: National Poetry Month;
the Poetry Book Club; a Web site; and the Online Poetry Classroom,
which encourages poetry education in secondary schools. Wadsworth
also oversaw the addition of five awards to the Academy's distinguished
series, as well as the establishment of the Atlas/Greenwall Fund,
which provides support to noncommercial poetry publishers. Under
Wadsworth's leadership the Academy's annual income increased from
$400,000 to $3 million, and its total assets grew from $2 million
to $10 million." Poets &
Writers 01/02
Thursday January
3
MUGGLES
GOT NO SENSE OF HUMOR: Time was when a cultural phenomenon
knew it had hit the big time when a parody showed up in Mad
Magazine. These days, the modern equivalent seems to be
when some aspiring satirist finds his/her work shot down in court,
or declined by publishers fearful of the wrath of their corporate
peers. A Harry Potter parody is the latest victim of the
publishing/merchandising brand-protection conspiracy, and its
author is not happy. The Globe &
Mail (Toronto) 01/02/02
COWBOY
COUPLETS: It gets lonely out there on the prairie, ridin'
the range with nothin' but the tumbleweed and the herd to keep
you company on those long, cold, Midwest nights. At least we assume
it does: how else to explain the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering,
going on this month in Elko, Nevada? "Started 18 years ago,
the annual event, which now lasts a week, is attended by more
than 8,000 people. The schedule features workshops, exhibitions,
panel discussions, films, and performances by some of today's
finest cowboy poets, musicians, and craftsmen." Christian
Science Monitor 01/02/02
Wednesday January
2
SAVING
BOOKS: The Library of Congress has begun plans to de-acidify
a million books in its collection. "More than 150 years ago,
papermakers started using chemicals that made their product acidic
and thus more susceptible to decay." The Library has a "plan
to de-cidify about 8.5 million of the library's 18.7 million books,
a move that is intended to add hundreds of years to the life of
the books." The New York Times
01/01/02
PUBLISHING
THE ARTWORLD: As the artworld gets more complex, sprawling
and difficult to sort through, a tiny magazine called Border Crossings
produced in central Canada makes a pretty good guide. "Writers
in Border Crossings accomplish, better than most, the critic's
most difficult task: communicating art ideas to non-artists and
artists alike, explaining what matters to the first group without
boring or appalling the second. For the most part, they avoid
artspeak, the private language that disfigures many magazines."
National Post 01/02/02
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