Harper Lee, author of the classic American novel To Kill A Mockingbirg, is famously reclusive and publicity-averse. In fact, she hasn’t given an interview in over forty years. “But like her reclusive character Boo Radley, Lee recently emerged to perform an act of kindness. The author signed a first edition of her book that will be sold to raise money for the seriously ill son of [a] Cookeville, Tenn., police chief.”
Blog
Another Indie Bookstore Gives Up The Ghost
Bound To Be Read, a large-scale independent bookseller operating stores in Albuquerque and the Twin Cities has announced that it will close its doors within a few months. The company had sought to attract consumers who would ordinarily shop at large chain stores by offering a wide array of products and services (including a coffee bar and on-demand CD burning) in addition to a huge in-store stock of literature. 68 employees at the two stores will be laid off – the Albuquerque store had been open for fifteen years, the St. Paul outlet for five.
From Bad To Worse In Denver
“The departure of Colorado Ballet’s executive director two weeks ago has set off a chain reaction of resignations, including the company’s board chairwoman, its head of sales and marketing and five other board members. At the same time, the company still owes the city of Denver $146,629 in rent and other fees from its fall production of “Dracula” in the Buell Theatre. And it will owe about $150,000 more at the end of the current run of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. As a backdrop to all this, Jane Hermann, the New York agent for internationally renowned choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, said the company is in breach of contract with him.”
A Kinder, Gentler, TV Turnoff Push
It’s Tilt-At-Windmills Week again, otherwise known as TV Turnoff Week, when do-gooders across the U.S. beg, plead, and otherwise cajole us to snap off the tube and for-God’s-sake-do-something-with-our-lives. But this year, you may not notice the usual screeching about the evils of television, because proponents of the turnoff effort are taking a new tack, and you probably won’t even know they’re working on you unless you’re paying close attention.
Monet For Money: The Boston-Vegas Art Exchange Continues
“It was a gamble when [Boston’s] Museum of Fine Arts decided to loan more than a dozen Monets to a Las Vegas casino gallery last year. Art critics and museum curators were not pleased, saying that it violated the mission of the nonprofit institution. But the MFA received a reported $1 million, and the show at the Bellagio Gallery of Art will draw about 450,000 people by its May 30 closing.” So naturally, the Bostonians will shortly be sending more works to Vegas for the casino’s next show, in exchange for a now-undisclosed amount of money.
Getting Foreign Lit A Place At The Table
It’s old news that literature in translation doesn’t sell too well in the English-speaking world, and even getting the stuff displayed can be difficult in a marketplace of megachains bent on squeezing every drop of profit out of the latest bestsellers. But a new promotional push by two indie publishing houses has signed up 80 independent booksellers who have agreed to prominently feature ten works in translation over the next month. The aim isn’t necessarily to make a killing, merely to get bookstores and readers in the habit of considering foreign books alongside the usual domestic choices.
Blogging The Written Word
In today’s lowbrow world, face-to-face conversations about serious literature can be hard to come by. But then, that’s what the Internet is for, and a new generation of lit-blogs has sprung up, to the delight of obsessive readers everywhere. “It’s infinitely appealing for a person who loves to read and aims to write to slip through the wardrobe into a parallel world where other people actually care about books; where Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem aren’t just boldface names but animated superheroes forced to face the wrath of supervixen Candace Bushnell.”
Ontario Book Awards Announced
“All That Matters, the latest novel from Toronto-based writer Wayson Choy, is among the winners of the 18th annual Trillium Book Awards.” The Ontario-based awards ceremony took place on Wednesday, and other winners included Antonio D’Alfonso in the French language category, and Maureen Scott Harris for her poetry collection, Drowning Lessons.
Movie Filtering Technology Legalized
A bill giving legal protection to companies which “sanitize” Hollywood movies by removing nudity, profanity, and innuendo was signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. “The legislation, called the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, creates an exemption in copyright laws to make sure companies selling filtering technology won’t get sued out of existence.”
New Law Threatens Jail Time For File-Swapping
“People who ‘pirate’ music and movies on the internet in the US face up to three years in jail under a new law signed by President Bush on Wednesday. The bill targets file-sharers who put copies of new songs and films online before their commercial release. It also introduces tough new penalties for anyone caught in a cinema filming a movie with a video camera.”