Friday
August 30
PESSIMISTIC
ABOUT BOOK SALES: Publishing industry stocks have been falling,
and sales projections for the rest of this year are down. "A
fragile economy, the stock market meltdown, the lack of job growth,
huge government deficits, fears of war and the dampening affect
of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks are working together
to make analysts pessimistic about retail sales for much of the
rest of the year." Publishers
Weekly 08/28/02
Thursday
August 29
CRITIC
WINS GOETHE PRIZE: German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki
has been awarded this year's Goethe prize for his life's work.
"Known as the pope of German literary criticism, Mr Reich-Ranicki,
82, has himself been a best-selling author." Earlier this
yearhe was in the news "as the inspiration for a controversial
book by Martin Walser called Death Of A Critic, which was
widely criticised for anti-Semitism." BBC
08/29/02
MISSING
THE MOB: Simon & Schuster is suing a Hollywood talent
agency for misrepresenting the identity of a writer. S&S paid
$500,000 to the author of The Honored Society, who was
represented as " the highest ranking mob member ever
to record the innermost workings" of the Mafia. The writer
was said to be the grandson of mobster Carlo Gambino, but is not.
Nando Times (AP) 08/29/02
SCOTLAND
IS FOR WRITERS: Scotland is attracting writers - particularly
women writers - from abroad. "Scotland has the most fantastic
opportunities for first time writers. In Edinburgh, not only are
there some brilliant publishing houses like Canongate, but with
the city being so compact there is a real writing community that
is facilitated by the Scottish Art Council which is fantastically
supportive in the way of grants and advice for first time writers."
The Scotsman 08/29/02
POETIC
PORTRAIT OF A CITY: Really - do your run-of-the-mill postcards
capture the sense of a city? Doubtful. So along comes a new project
that puts poetry of postcards. "Chosen in an open competition,
with winners recently selected, poetic likenesses of L.A. will
begin appearing on thousands of free postcards around the city
in November." Los Angeles Times
08/28/02
Wednesday
August 28
THIS
YEAR'S PUBLISHING PREOCCUPATION: Hundreds of books about 9/11
are being published as the one-year anniversary approaches. "At
Barnes & Noble bookstores in New York, tables are stacked
high with titles related to 9/11, a grouping that includes not
just books about Sept. 11, but also picture-book tributes to the
World Trade Center, poetry anthologies about New York, coffee-table
books about the American flag and stocking-stuffer-type books
on the inspirational words of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani."
The New York Times 08/28/02
JUST
THINK OF THE CLASH OF ACCENTS: Canada is justifiably proud
of its writers, and a huge contingent of Canucks is present at
this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival. Among other
things, it is starting to become clear that Canada's writers share
a common sense of humor and appreciation for the theatrical, and
that they further their own cause in the global publishing world
with their lack of pretense (as compared with, say American authors.)
Edinburgh has been particularly kind to the Canadians this year,
thanks to the festival's organizer, Catherine Lockerbie. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/28/02
Tuesday
August 27
BOOK
SALES UP: This is turning out to be a pretty good year for
book sales. Revenues for America's three largest bookstore chains
increased 3.9%, to $1.73 billion in the second quarter. "The
increase was slower than the 4.8% increase recorded by the booksellers
in the first quarter." Publishers
Weekly 08/26/02
REMIND
YOU OF ANYONE? Books no longer stand by themselves - they're
all planned and marketed to make the potential reader relate them
to successful books which have come before. It's "harder
all the time, however, to distinguish the descendants from the
ancestor, and at some stage, when the proliferation of similar
titleswith their sometimes intentionally confusing similarity
of cover designs and jacket copyreaches a true saturation
point, it ceases to matter. How many long-dead statesmen can the
market bear? How many fatal voyages, doomed expeditions, valiant
racehorses, Tuscan reveries, and tales of botanical obsession?"
Speakeasy 08/02
NAME
AUCTION: An e-author auctions off the names of dogs in her
new novel as a way of raising money for rescued greyhounds. "More
than 4,000 greyhound lovers unleashed online bids to name canine
characters in best-selling author Cyn Mobley's first self-published
novel, Greyhound Dancing." The book has already sold
enough to cover its production costs. Wired
08/27/02
Monday
August 26
SMUGGLED
TREASURE FOR SALE: A set of scrolls known as Buddhism's "Dead
Sea Scrolls" are about to be sold for £70 million.
But there's a moral issue about the sale. The scrolls are owned
by a Norwegian collector, who bought them after they were smuggled
out of Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. They are believed
to come from the Bamiyan area, and at least one expert believes
that "this cache of manuscripts, although obviously very
different, is of 'comparable importance' to the Buddha statues,
which were destroyed by the Taliban last year." The
Art Newspaper 08/23/02
A
SLAMMIN' STRATEGY FOR POETRY: The poetry slam would seem to
be about lone poets getting up and talking. "Yet this seemingly
ego-centered solo art masks a complex game of tournament strategy,
of regional differences and scoring psychouts. The slam may look
like poetry-as-therapy onstage, but off-stage, it's poetry-as-team-sport.
It's the most personal artistic expression tied to the kind of
competitive game plans you'd find in football or basketball."
Dallas Morning News 08/25/02
- Previously: SLAMMIN'
JAM: The 12th annual National Poetry Slam was held in Minneapolis
this weekend. "The slam, founded by ex-construction worker
Marc Smith, was meant to liberate poetry from its academic ghetto.
It took its cue from wrestling, relying on audience participation
to judge victors. Slam turned into something else - mostly a
way to get dates. Many of the poems still sound like come-ons.
Like hip-hop, which it has influenced and from which it borrows
performance techniques, this fluid form is so much more."
The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 08/18/02
SANDBURG
FIND: An antiques dealer in Pennsylvania was getting rid of
some old boxes last year when he discovered a cache of writings
by Carl Sandburg. "The collection includes manuscripts with
handwritten revisions, correspondence with the likes of the late
Illinois governor and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson,
and 12 photos of Sandburg's 75th birthday party, taken by his
brother-in-law, photographer Edward Steichen." The papers
will be auctioned off this week. Nando
Times (AP) 08/25/02
DOROTHY
HEWETT, 79: Yesterday morning, Australian literature lost,
if not one of its saints, than one of its most cherished and authentic
larrikins, when Hewett, poet, playwright and novelist, died, aged
79. The Age (Melbourne) 08/26/02
- A
GREAT AUSTRALIAN: "Dorothy was one of the most inspirational
women I know. A great writer and poet with a lifelong commitment
to her craft, she never lost her passion for social justice
or her courage in supporting left-wing causes. Her sardonic
irreverence, intellect, honesty, warm heart, her encyclopedic
knowledge of Australian literature and history were some of
the qualities that made her a formidable friend, a wonderfully
talented writer and a great Australian." Sydney
Morning Herald 08/26/02
Sunday
August 25
A
BOY AND HIS (IRREPLACEABLE) TOY: Jim Irsay - owner of an Elvis
guitar and the NFL's Indianapolis Colts - bought the manuscript
of Jack Karouac's On the Road last year. And scolars and
historians are dismayed. "Whether he's stubbing out cigarettes
just inches away from his fragile and irreplaceable draft of On
the Road or fondly recalling how he gave reporters the finger
after buying the manuscript, or stripping down to a tie, an artfully
placed guitar and little else in the course of a photo shoot,
Irsay is, depending how you look at it, either a party permanently
in progress or an accident waiting to happen. 'To me, it's already
got this mystical aura to it. And it would be really cool to add
to that. And I think I have the capabilities and the creative
thinking to do that in a way that's viewed as fun, but universally
viewed as safe and respectful." Baltimore
Sun 08/24/02
WHAT'S
PLAYING: Publishing the theatre world's most-widely-used program
book is not such an easy matter. With daily, weekly and monthly
publications, Playbill is a complicated business. The magazine's
circulation has increased some 350 percent, to 3.7 million copies
a month, and the demise of Stagebill, its main competitor, means
Playbill dominates its market like no other. The
New York Times 08/25/02
Friday
August 23
WHO
BOUGHT WHAT WHEN: A group of publishing associations wants
to know how much snooping the US government has done on book sales
information. "Section 215 of the Patriot Act [passed last
fall] grants the FBI the ability to demand that any person or
business immediately turn over records of books purchased or borrowed
by anyone suspected of involvement with 'international terrorism'
or 'clandestine activities.' The act includes a 'gag order,' preventing
a bookstore or library from discussing of the matter with anyone
or announcing the matter to the press. A bookstore may phone its
attorney at the time of the request, but it can be done only as
an afterthought, as the information must be supplied to the FBI
immediately, or the employee risks arrest." Publishers
Weekly 08/22/02
POETS
QUIT OVER RACISM CHARGES: More than 100 poets are boycotting
Chicago's largest annual poetry reading. The festival's poetry
coordinator quit after the Bucktown Arts Festival director "ordered
him to ban poets who were the targets of hecklers" at another
festival last month. "The problem is that all 'those' poets
are primarily black and Latino," charges C.J. Laity, the
poetry coordinator. So Laity quit, and so did 100 of the poets,
forcing cancellation of the event. Chicago
Sun-Times 08/23/02
Thursday
August 22
HE'S
BAAACK: B.R. Myers is back with his manifesto against the
quality of contemporary writing and the structure that props it
up. "Boiled down to its essence, his message is this: Contemporary
fiction is overrated; youre better off reading Balzac. The
last half of that claim has been true for more than 150 years,
but never mindlets grant Mr. Myers the main point:
The novels published today are almost never the marvels critics
regularly make them out to be. The vast majority of contemporary
writers are indeed overrated. Creeping grade inflation has made
it too easy for accessible, intelligent and movingbut hardly
perfect or transcendentnovels like, say, Mr. Franzens
The Corrections to receive the critical equivalent of straight
As." New York Observer
08/21/02
Wednesday
August 21
FROM
WEB TO PRINT: Launching a new magazine is tough, particularly
one about books. Book publishers have killed most of their print
advertising in favor of in-store promotion. But the Readerville
Journal is launching in September with a built in online audience
of 20,000. "It's as if a focus group of several thousand
people met round-the-clock for two years to lay out an agenda
for this content. What kills many magazine startups is the cost
of building circulation in the early stages. We have the luxury
of not having to spend huge sums of money to go hunting for subscribers."
Wired 08/21/02
Tuesday
August 20
BOOKER
FINALISTS ANNOUNCED: "Jon McGregor's first novel, If
Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, yesterday catapulted him
on to this year's Booker longlist, alongside Anita Brookner, William
Trevor, Michael Frayn, Zadie Smith, and 25 other writers. The
field was picked from an original entry of 130 books. From it
a shortlist will be chosen next month." The
Guardian (UK) 08/20/02
NEW
LIFE FOR LINGUA FRANCA? Is Lingua Franca about to be
revived? "Jeffrey Kittay, a former professor of French who
created the magazine in 1990 but had to discontinue it after last
November's issue, when his major backer withdrew financing, said
he had made a bid to buy the magazine's assets from the bankruptcy
court." The New York Times 08/19/02
CAN'T
TELL A BOOK BY ITS PUBLISHER: Do readers care who published
the book they're thinking of buying? A new study says not at all.
"Readers simply don't pay any mind to who has published a
book. If they do think about publishers at all, they don't think
of them as part of the creative process of book production, merely
as making money from it. It wasn't always so. In the past, many
imprints won great loyalty and affection from readers."
London Evening Standard 08/19/02
WHERE
TO PUT POETRY? "Poetry, the cornerstone of most cultures'
bodies of literature, was always meant for a listening audience
rather than a private reader. Written poetry today - with the
exception of The Nation's Favourite anthologies and Ted Hughes's
Birthday Letters - is a poor cousin in the world of published
literature. Yet all over the UK, in poetry cafés, arts
centres and comedy clubs, poetry is blending with music, rap,
stand-up and performance art and attracting an enthusiastic younger,
multicultural following." The
Observer (UK) 08/18/02
Monday
August 19
TALK
TALK TALK TALK TALK... "Literary theories from formalism
to Marxism to postmodernism are all pretty much agreed on the
fact that the author, once he or she has put the final full stop
on the final redraft, becomes irrelevant. What a writer intended
to say is unimportant. What the book actually does say is all
that matters. Odd, then, that every year thousands of people pay
good money to listen to authors talk about their work, their motivations,
hobbies, influences, tastes in music, and a question guaranteed
to produce a shudder of horror in even the most gregarious festival
guest where they get their ideas from." The
Age (Melbourne) 08/19/02
SLAMMIN'
JAM: The 12th annual National Poetry Slam was held in Minneapolis
this weekend. "The slam, founded by ex-construction worker
Marc Smith, was meant to liberate poetry from its academic ghetto.
It took its cue from wrestling, relying on audience participation
to judge victors. Slam turned into something else - mostly a way
to get dates. Many of the poems still sound like come-ons. Like
hip-hop, which it has influenced and from which it borrows performance
techniques, this fluid form is so much more." The
Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 08/18/02
CUT
RATE BOOKS: Book remainders can crank out extra profits for
publishers and booksellers. "For publishers and booksellers,
it's all pretty slick and efficient. Unfortunately, the system
leaves authors out in the cold. A typical book contract gives
the author a royalty on each book sold in the first round. But
in most cases, if the book is remaindered, the author gets nothing
except the right to buy his or her own book for a song."
Boston Globe 08/19/02
THIS
IS LITERATURE? BR Myers roiled the literary world last year
with his attack in the Atlantic magazine on modern writing and
on critics who support inferior prose. Now his manifesto is being
published in book form. "It takes a lot of arrogance to disagree
with the consensus of critics
But this is precisely what
we readers need. Our own taste is the only authority we should
listen to." FoxNews.com 08/08/02
WRITING
OVER REWARDS: Charles Webb had a big success with his novel
The Graduate back in 1962. "With its subversive rejection
of materialism and middle-class mores, The Graduate captured
the nascent mood of rebellion that was to sweep through the 1960s.
But somewhere along the way, Webb's urge to write was swamped
by his urge to reject material rewards and disappear. They were
set for life. They found this oppressive." So Webb and his
wife gave away all their money to live in poverty... The
Age (Melbourne) 08/19/02
Sunday
August 18
QUIET
TIME TO WRITE: Prison hasn't slowed down author Jeffrey Archer.
This week he "signed a three-book deal with Macmillan/St.
Martin's reportedly worth millions of pounds - from his jail cell,
where he is doing four years for lying on the stand. His agent
told the press that, because Archer has 'never been writing better,'
he jokes that he's leading a campaign to keep him inside."
San Francisco Chronicle 08/17/02
Thursday
August 15
BRITISH
LIBRARY STRIKE CANCELED: Workers at the British Library had
planned to go on strike Monday, protesting the Library's pay proposal.
But negotiations have moved ahead better than expected, and the
union has called off the strike. "We are hopeful that the
suspension of strike action will provide an opportunity for a
fair pay settlement to be reached." BBC
08/14/02
Wednesday
August 14
BAILING
OUT PUBLISHERS: Canadian publishers were caught in financial
trouble earlier this year when the country's largest book distributor
went out of business owing a lot of money. But various levels
of government have stepped in to bail out struggling publishers.
"As publishing goes through changes in Canada, we want to
make sure that the really good publishers, who do outstanding
literature and who are professionally excellent, can survive and
thrive." The Globe & Mail
(Canada) 08/14/02
AROUND-THE-WORLD
BOOKS: San Francisco artist Brian Singer created 1000 journals,
then released them into the world with strangers where they were
to be passed on from person to person until the pages of the books
are filled. Their progress can be followed on the web at www.1000journals.com.
"The journals have crisscrossed North America and travelled
to more than 30 other countries, from Guam to South Africa, from
China to the Netherlands. But most unexpected has been how the
journals have taken on lives of their own: "A lot of people
are writing in the journals about the journals. These journals
are having their own unique adventures." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/14/02
LUSH
LIFE: "The rampant alcoholism of so many major American
writers would be enough to put any young writer off drink for
life. Problem-drinking was once so pervasive in the US literary
scene that Sinclair Lewis used to challenge people to name five
American writers since Poe who did not die from alcoholism. Ernest
Hemingway famously insisted that all good writers are drinking
writers, and once upon a time in America so they were." The
Age (Melbourne) 08/14/02
Tuesday
August 13
ONLINE
TREASURE: The £15 million Sherborne Missal is the first
important UK document to go online for the public in a digitization
project to put virtual copies of important rare documents online.
The manuscript "was created in the early 15th Century at
Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, and is regarded as a major masterpiece
of UK medieval art." BBC 08/13/02
A
BESTSELLER SECRET? They don't get much respect in the literary
world, but Britain's top-selling authors - among them Barbara
Cartland, Jackie Collins and Jeffrey Archer - have sold 3.5 billion
books. "What is it that makes these authors - often ridiculed
but obsessively read - so stupendously successful? Literary merit?
Perhaps not. Some have sold their souls brilliantly to the media,
while others simply had the knack or luck of perfect timing. And
their rewards continue to amass." London
Evening Standard (UK) 08/12/02
Monday
August 12
TO
BLURB OR NOT TO BLURB: Blurbing a book is - more often than
not - an act of politics. Getting the right blurber for your cover
requires strategy. "Nonfeasance is the norm in blurbing.
Publishers expect little. Several galleys per week arrive at my
door. I always open the envelope, and I always read the editor's
letter. I like the personal, the flattering, the imploring: 'In
so many ways this book reminds me of yours... The
New York Times 08/12/02
SUBVERTING
THE SPIN: Publishers try to orchestra the best media flurry
they can when an important new book comes out. For big authors
this means negotiating serialization rights and making sure the
biggest critics and publications get first whack. But in the age
of the internet, traditional embargos on reviewing books don't
make an awful lot of sense. The Observer
(UK) 08/11/02
PEER
(NET) REVIEW: Internationally, about 25,000 science, technical
and medical journals are peer-reviewed, meaning they are vetted
by two or three specialists, plus the journals' editors. The authors
and reviewers, who work as volunteers, can be anywhere in the
world, and many journals' editors work off site. With such far-flung
participants, the submission and assessment process for peer-reviewed
articles has traditionally involved lengthy mail delays, high
postage costs and cumbersome administration. But in the past few
years new software has dramtically cut don turnaround time. And
it's changing the peer review process. The
New York Times 08/12/02
BRAIN
DRAIN: "The notion of summer reading appears to stem
from the belief that since everything else shuts down during the
hot months, so, too, should our brains. It's a holdover, of sorts,
from early school days, when we were programmed to regard cerebration
and summer as at odds. And the publishing industry only reinforces
this precept, tending to save its weightier tomes and big-name
writers for fall lists." National
Post (Canada) 08/10/02
Friday
August 9
MOVING
BOOKS ONLINE: Struggling used-book sellers in Australia are
closing up their storefronts. But they're not going out of business
- they're moving online, where the business seems brisker (and
cheaper to run). "The success of online selling may soon
see the second-hand book lover struggling to locate a suburban
seller." Sydney Morning Herald
08/09/02
FLUSHING OUT AMAZON:
The Canadian Booksellers Association and Indigo, the country's
largest bookstore chain, have appealed to the Canadian government
to stop Amazon from operating a Canadian version of its online
business. Canadian booksellers say Amazon unfairly finessed its
way around Canada's foreign ownership laws. Wired
08/09/02
A
MATTER OF BIAS: Do different standards apply when reviewing
books by African-Americans? Critic Wanda Coleman believes so.
"Critically reviewing the creative efforts of present-day
African-American writers, no matter their origin, is a minefield
of a task complicated by the social residuals of slavery and the
shifting currents in American publishing. Into this 21st century,
African-Americans are still denied full and open participation
in the larger culture. Thus, our books remain repositories for
the complaints and resentments harbored against the nation we
love, as well as paeans to the courage, fortitude and sacrifice
of peers and forebears." LAWeekly
08/08/02
BATTLING
SUPERHEROES: Selling comic books is not like selling books.
In book sales, if you order too many copies, you get to return
the unsold volumes. But comic book sellers have to guess how many
copies will sell, and eat the ones that don't Now a small Bay
Area comic book seller is suing giant Marvel Comics (home of Spiderman)
over sloppy returns policies. Sure Brian Hibbs is only out $2000,
but when he certified a class action, the amount soared to millions...
SFWeekly 08/08/02
Thursday
August 8
TORONTO
FINALISTS ANNOUNCED: "A translation of a Portugese long
poem, three novels, an autobiography and a biography are the nominees
for the 2002 Toronto Book Awards. The finalists, announced yesterday,
were selected from 83 submissions by a six-member judging committee...
The top prize is $10,000 while each of the finalists will receive
$1,000. The winner will be announced at the Word On the Street
festival on Sept. 29." National
Post (Canada) 08/08/02
SPEAKING
OF BOOKS: Writers who can talk find there's an increasingly
eager audience for what they have to say (as opposed to what they
write?). "The fee scale for writers in this country ranges
from two thousand dollars for a well-respected poet to over a
hundred thousand for a high-profile, celebrity writer." Poets
& Writers 08/02
BRITISH
LIBRARY STRIKE, PART II: "Staff at the British Library
are to hold a 48-hour pay strike on Thursday and Friday... Members
of the Public And Commercial Services Union (PCS) took similar
action in pursuit of a pay claim on 29 July but the impact was
said to be minimal... The last strike forced the closure of reading
rooms in the St Pancras Building in Central London, but the library
remained open." BBC 08/08/02
Wednesday
August 7
CANCON
MISUSED? Indigo Books, Canada's largest bookseller, is suing
to prevent Amazon from making inroads into the country, and some
critics aren't happy. "Canada has rules protecting cultural
industries in Canada. Those rules limit, among other things, foreign
ownership of bookstores and publishers. The idea is to create
a balance between nurturing indigenous cultural products and fostering
competition that favours consumers. Too often, in my view, consumers
are shortchanged in this equation. I'm all for government-sponsored
encouragement for the writing and publishing of Canadian books.
But why... are we protecting booksellers from foreign competition?"
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/07/02
SCHAMA
SIGNS RECORD DEAL: Simon Schama has signed a £3 million
book/TV deal for a series focusing on Anglo-American relations.
"The book deal from HarperCollins for the non-UK rights to
Mr Schama's books is worth £2 million, thought to be the
single biggest advance ever paid for history titles. The BBC,
which is paying the remaining £1 million for the British
rights to the books and to the two television series, said it
thought Prof Schama was worth 'every penny'." The
Telegraph (UK) 08/04/02
Tuesday
August 6
BESTSELLING
WHAT? Every writer, publisher, agent - anyone, in fact, who's
involved in the publication of books - pays attention to Bestseller
lists. They pay attention even though everyone knows their accuracy
is questionable. Some high-selling books never make it to the
list, while other, lower-volume books manage to sqeak on. And
then there's the whole business of in-store placement and promotion...
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/06/02
THE
SHAKESPEARE FRANCHISE: "The 'did-Shakespeare-really-write-Shakespeare'
debate has raged for 200 years." A new Australian documentary
takes up the case and concludes that Shakespeare had some help
- "that Shakespeare collaborated with Marlowe to produce
the works; that Marlowe provided the great themes and learning,
while Shakespeare was the voice of 'the heart and soul of merry
England'." The Age (Melbourne)
08/06/02
RISE
OF THE DEAL-MAKER: The literary agent is fast dying out. He's
being replaced by the multimedia packager, the deal-maker capable
of putting together a deal for TV, movies, newspapers and brand
marketing. What's that doing to the author of work that doesn't
fit into easily-recognizeable categories? London
Evening Standard 08/05/02
CHICK
LIT EXPLAINED: "The term 'chick lit', with its post-feminist
use of the word 'chick' and its sing-song almost-rhyme, originated
as a way of describing young women's fiction of any sort. Now
it specifically means a 'fun', pastel-covered novel with a young,
female, city-based protagonist, who has a kooky best friend, an
evil boss, romantic troubles and a desire to find The One
the apparently unavailable man who is good-looking, can cook and
is both passionate and considerate in bed. However, despite the
Identikit covers and the join-the-dots plots, almost everyone
you ask in commercial publishing says at least publicly
that chick lit is not formulaic, exploitative or cynically
produced. In fact, it is almost a conspiracy. It is virtually
impossible to find anyone prepared to criticise the genre."
The Independent (UK) 08/05/02
Monday
August 5
WHAT
BECOMES A BESTSELLER? "As books editor, I have pondered
this question more than once. Sure, great content helps. But let's
not be naive: Just as in dating, many other factors come into
play. I have learned my lesson yet again: When it comes to books,
the hype machine is an unreliable matchmaker, ruled as often by
press and publishing self-interest as by literary ideals."
Rocky Mountain News 08/04/02
DUMPING
THE DISCOUNTS: Online booksellers have offered deep discounts
in an attempt to lure customers. But Korean bookstores complained
the practice is driving them out of business. So last week the
Korean National Assembly passed a law that declares "online
operators will not be allowed to offer discounts of more than
10 percent for book titles less than a year old." Korea
Herald 08/05/02
BOOKS
FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T READ: "They sell to people working
at 30,000 offices, factories and schools, and 2 million more by
mail order and the internet. They sell 14 million books a year,
and each year they throw extraordinary parties with fairground
rides and marching bands to celebrate their success. Peculiarly,
unless The Book People send you their catalogues or visit your
workplace every few weeks, you may never have heard of them."
The Observer (UK) 08/04/02
Sunday
August 4
'THE
GREAT GERLACH' JUST DOESN'T SOUND RIGHT: "Was Jay Gatsby,
the title character of F. Scott Fitzerald's most famous novel,
a distinguished Austrian baron,or a poseur bootlegger who changed
his name to cavort with the rich and famous of Prohibition-era
New York? That is the question at the centre of an international
literary hunt to unearth the shady details of Max von Gerlach,
the man experts believe to be the prototype for the mythic American
tycoon who graced the pages of the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby."
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/04/02
Friday
August 2
TOLSTOY
GATHERING: It's being billed as the largest-ever gathering
of descendants of novelist Leo Tolstoy. "About 90 of 300
known Tolstoy relatives from Russia, Europe and the United
States will take a train today from Moscow to the writer's
estate, 200 kilometres south of Moscow, said the author's great-great-grandson
Vladimir Tolstoy." Toronto Star
(AP) 08/02/02
Thursday
August 1
FORWARD
AND BACK: The lead judge for the UK's prestigious (and lucrative)
Forward prize for poetry has resigned amid allegations that the
prize props up a small group of poets, favors a single publisher,
and ignores women. The accusations come from the head of a British
publishing firm, the Forward sponsors deny them vehemently, and
the resigning judge says that he is stepping down to remove even
the appearance of impropriety. BBC
08/01/02
HEAVENLY
REPRODUCTION: There are only four 'nearly-perfect' copies
of the Gutenberg Bible in the U.S., and sadly for the type of
scholars who break out in hives when they contemplate having to
actually leave the Boston-New York-Washington corridor for a couple
of days, one of the copies is all the way out in Austin, Texas,
where an armed guard keeps it under constant watch. But the University
of Texas is near completion of a project to digitize all 1300
pages of its Gutenberg, to the delight of religious scholars.
Much of the book is already online, and the quality is said to
be far superior to any previous reproductions of a Gutenberg.
Chicago Tribune 08/01/02
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