Sadly, the UK press is reporting that Frank McCourt‘s battle with skin cancer is near the end, citing a friend who indicates he “has deteriorated dramatically.” McCourt is reported to have been “transferred to a hospice at the weekend.”
Belfast Telegraph
The Observer reports that VS Naipaul has left longtime agent Gillon Aitken for Aitken’s one-time partner, Andrew Wylie. Wylie writes, “I think Vidia felt that it was, simply, time to move on. I can’t say with any authority what considerations were involved, but I do believe there is work to be done on the foreign rights side, as well as in the UK & US, and we’re well suited to do that work.”
As Naipaul’s editor at Knopf George Andreou says: “A prospectus is always more intriguing than an account summary. It’s always the case: ‘What I will do for you’ is always more exciting than ‘what I’ve done for you.'”
Observer
Edinburgh Book Festival director Catherine Lockerbie is resigning after nine years for “a consultancy role on the impact of literature, culture and festivals at home and abroad.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090715/stage_nm/us_books_edinburgh
Jutta Klein Associates has been appointed the US scout for Porto Editora in Portugal.