As covered this weekend, author David Foster Wallace, 46, was found dead in his Claremont, CA home on Friday night, having hanged himself. Pomona College, where he was the Roy E. Disney professor of creative writing at Pomona College, will hold a memorial service. Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch tells the NYT, “He had a mind that was constantly working on more cylinders than most people, but he was amazingly gentle and kind. He was a writer who other writers looked to with awe.”LATNYT The NYT followed today with a second obituary, this time with some insights from Wallace’s father […]
Archives for September 2008
People: Keating Joins Endeavor, and More
Endeavor continues to build up its presence in the book business with the hiring of Dutton editor-in-chief Trena Keating as an agent in the New York office. Keating says: “As an editor I always loved helping authors craft ideas, and I’m eager to dive deeper into this entrepreneurial aspect of the publishing process. Richard [Abate] and I have long had a close and collaborative business relationship and it’s been great fun to watch him create the literary department at Endeavor, so I’m excited to be a part of his growing team. I’ve had extraordinary colleagues on the publishing side, particularly […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, September 15
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut NYT bestselling author of Kabul Beauty School Deborah Rodriguez’s KABUL COFFEE […]
Cheney Book Looks at Conflict Over Spying
The Washington Post is running excerpts from Barton Gellman’s THE ANGLER: The Cheney Vice Presidency, which publishes on Tuesday. The book’s take on domestic surveillance conducted post 9/11: “Cheney and his counsel would struggle for months to quash the legal insurgency. By the time President Bush became aware of it, his No. 2 had stoked dissent into flat-out rebellion. The president would face a dilemma, and the presidency itself a historic test. Cheney would come close to leading them off a cliff, man and office both.” Washington PostSecond excerpt
Agatha Christie Speaks
Chorion, the company that controls the Agatha Christie estate, is announcing the recent discovery of 13 hours of audiotapes made by the author in the early 60s, found “in a dusty cardboard box in one of hero former houses by her only grandson, Mathew Prichard.” The material was eventually used in her autobiography, published posthumously in 1977. Chorion is using the occasion (timed to coincide with the 118th anniversary of her birth) to suggest that they might update that book: “There are bits and pieces of the autobiography that could be reviewed, in light of listening to the tapes.” Christie’s […]
The Sky Is Falling
It’s changing times in the book business for sure, but NY Magazine applies the cliched journalistic formula to make that into End Times. Random House’s new ceo may be more business-focused and energetic. Borders is in trouble. Books sold to stores are nonreturnable, and sometimes publishers have to pay display fees, the same way every other manufacturer deals with retailers. A prominent author left his old publisher after decades of support to get more money somewhere else after his sales flagged. The tooth fairy may be apocryphal. The timing of this achingly long list of moans and whines that proclaim […]