A Florida judge has ruled that the will of Gabrielle Kerouac, the mother of the late author who inherited his estate in 1969, was a forgery, citing testimony from handwriting experts and doctors. Gabrielle had passed the literary estate to Kerouac’s third wife, Stella, now also deceased, who gave everything to her siblings in 1990. The suit was brought by the author’s reportedly impoverished nephew Paul Blake Jr., who took over the original action filed by Kerouac’s estranged (and now also deceased) daughter Jan in 1994. It’s not clear whether the new court ruling will bring Blake a share of […]
Authors
People and Announcements
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 […]
Grisham to Write Spec Screenplay About Four Sailors Who Claim Were Wrongly Convicted
The novelist is working on a screenplay about Virginia’s Norfolk Four. “It’s the most egregious case of wrongful conviction I’ve seen, and I travel around the country listening to stories about these cases,” Grisham says. He expects to have a draft finished by the fall, but for now he is writing it on spec. Tom Wells and Richard Leo published a book on the case, THE WRONG GUYS: Murder, False Confessions, and the Norfolk Four, last November with the New Press. Grisham said he hoped the project would help the three imprisoned sailors. “You can’t forget about those guys. I’m […]
The Other Side of the Larsson Dispute–And No Fourth Book
While there are number of issues of contention between the late Stieg Larsson’s heirs (his father Erland and his brother Joakim) and his partner of thirty years Eva Gabrielsson, one matter has unfortunately been resolved. Joakim Larsson tells us “we have an agreement not to publish” the 200 pages of unfinished manuscript for a fourth book in The Girl… series. Eva Gedin, fiction publisher at Norstedts–which bought world rights to the first three books directly from the author–confirms her understanding that the Larssons and Gabrielsson “mutually decided that a fourth novel will not be published.” Joakim Larsson notes that he […]
Go Ask Alice: Author Hoffman Shows Authors Not to Tweet In Anger, Apologizes
With one angry electronic outburst novelist Alice Hoffman may have changed how many readers view her. After novelist and longtime critic Roberta Silman wrote a mildly critical review of Hoffman’s THE STORY SISTERS in the Boston Globe, Hoffman reacted with a series of angry tweets. Not just a grumpy post or two, but 27 in all, according to NY Magazine (they have now been deleted, along with the corresponding Twitter account.) The series of 140-character-or-less insults also included Silman’s phone number and e-mail address (with a typo) and a rallying cry to “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.” […]
Literary Rediscoveries: Fallada, Carleton
The Los Angeles Times looks at Melville House’s recent publication of three novels by German writer Hans Fallada, including Every Man Dies Alone, originally released in 1947 but appearing for the first time in English now. The campaign represents “something of a calculated risk” for Melville House, who hopes for “breakthrough success” for the project. LAT HarperPerennial’s republication of Misourri author Jetta Carleton’s 1962 bestseller The Moonflower Vine, the only novel she ever published, merits mention from the Kansas City Star.