Category: publishing

Last month Irish writer Roddy Doyle dismissed James Joyce’s Ulysses as overlong and over-rated. “Not everyone leaped on Mr. Doyle, however, or leaped to Joyce’s defense. A number of writers in more serious papers defended Mr. Doyle’s right to bash an icon, and some Irish newspaper writers even conceded that they had always found Joyce rather a hard slog.” As an admirer of both James and Doyle, John Rockwell is conflicted…

The American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, and the writer’s group PEN American Center are mounting a signature drive to petition lawmakers to remove the section of the Patriot Act that allows law enforcement officials to see records of what library and bookstore patrons read.

The works of Boris Pasternak were banned from publication for 30 years by the Soviet government. Now the writer’s complete works will be published in Russia. “All 11 volumes are set to be published by February 2005 to mark the 115th anniversary of Pasternak’s birth. The first two volumes, including poems written between 1912 and 1959, have already been printed by Slovo publishers. The nine others will also be published before February next year.”

A biography of Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson leaves Daniel Asa Rose distrustful of biographer Susan Cheever. “Can a biographer be said to have so much understanding that she overidentifies with her subject? Is the biographer’s function to plead her subject’s case (“he was not a perfect man, but he was the perfect man for the job,” his “humanness does not diminish him, it makes him a writer, guide, and teacher,” etc.), or to let the unvarnished facts speak for themselves? When does discretion become a veil? Is there such a thing, in a biographer, as too much heart?”

Edwin Morgan, 83, has been named Scotlan’s new “Scots Makar”, the equivalent of a poet laureate. ” ‘The Scots Makar’ is a term dating back to the Scots poets of the 15th and 16th century. The unpaid position lasts for a three-year term and his task will be to represent and promote Scots poetry.”

Pity the poor adjective. “Writers frequently pull out the adjectives when they either haven’t, or are afraid they haven’t, provided sufficient data – specific nouns and active verbs – to get their ideas across.”ut adjectives are key to the best sort of writing…

Lynne Truss’ surprise grammar bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves has revived the financial fortunes of its small publisher, earning £5 million. “The book has now sold more than 480,000 copies after an initial print run of just 15,000. It seems there are more sticklers for grammar than we first thought.”

Canada Reads is a Survivor-style program where books are argued over before one is voted off the list by celebrities at the end of each show. This year’s Canada Reads is being played out on TV, radio and in schools. Why? “In 2002, the program’s first year, sales for Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, first published in 1988, reached 80,000, pushing it to the top of bestseller lists. Last year’s winner, Next Episode, also reappeared on bestseller lists, selling an additional 18,500 copies, while figures for the runner-up ran between 15,000 and 20,000.”

We don’t know very much about Shakespeare the man, do we? “What I think is that literary scholars have played down the historical aspect of Shakespeare. They almost feel his biography doesn’t matter, that he’s a genius who lived outside time. He had a house and kids and wrote plays and we don’t need to know anything else.”