Category: publishing

“First published 400 years ago, Shakespeare’s sonnets might never have been put to press had it been left to the author to decide things. As Clinton Heylin, the author of the new book So Long as Men Can Breathe: The Untold Story of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, explains, just as Bob Dylan’s basement tapes were never intended for a wide audience, such was the case with Shakespeare’s sonnets.”

“JD Salinger’s US literary agency is consulting lawyers after the publication of an unauthorised sequel to his seminal book The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger’s US agent, Phyllis Westberg at Harold Ober Associates, said: ‘The matter has been turned over to a lawyer,’ but refused to comment further.”

“An Exeter Township man pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to making more than $300,000 over six years by forging the signatures of famous authors in books and selling the books online.” Investigators said that Forrest R. Smith III “forged the names of authors, living and dead” — including Tom Clancy, Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut and Anne Rice — “and sold the books on eBay.”

“During most of Wodehouse’s long career, writers and readers had yet to reach an accord by which the former would knock down the bedroom walls and the latter would peer in. Much the same is true of, say, the screwball comedies of the 1930s. … It’s not a matter of morality or prudery, I would argue, but almost one of genre.”

In the scholarly debate about the origins of fairy tales, “the latest clash [is] over a new claim that, far from being passed down through an oral tradition, fairy tales actually have their history in print.” Stony Brook University professor Ruth B. Bottigheimer argues that “folk invention and transmission of fairy tales has no basis in verifiable fact.”

“The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a son of author John Steinbeck over the publishing rights to ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and other early works. The court said Monday it won’t disturb a ruling by the federal appeals court in New York that the rights belong to Penguin Group Inc., and the heirs of John Steinbeck’s widow, Elaine.”

“Scribd is proposing to do for books what iTunes did for music — let readers buy only what they want to read. … Starting today, Scribd is giving readers the option of buying content, including paying a few dollars for a chapter or two from a travel guide or a how-to book.” Scribd keeps 20 percent, and the rest goes to the writers and publishers.

“A descendant of Charles Darwin became the new professor of poetry at Oxford University this weekend, and the first woman to be elected to the role. Ruth Padel was chosen on Saturday night to succeed Christopher Ricks in the prestigious position, which was created in 1708. It came after the battle for the post was mired in controversy.”

“Is there a way that, by quickly flipping through the pages as if in search of a particular passage, you might be able to glean more of the plot in case Margy calls on you? Why not turn to the last page?”

“Look at what else we’ve produced, we argue, and point to a roster of cultural heavyweights that extends from Sinatra to Springsteen. But why this particular and dominating skill in poetry? Why not fiction or drama or history?”