For those who might have wondered why the covers of two recently published books by Francis Levy and Susan Squire featured the same photograph of amorous bonobos, the Observer has your answer. Turns out the photo, featured in a New Yorker article by Ian Parker, was taken by primatologist Frans de Waal – and when both Squire and Levy saw the photo, both asked permission to use it. “I received emails about this cover from both authors or publishers in the same week,” de Waal. “I am not a photo agency, but a busy scientist, so [I] don’t keep very […]
Authors
Plumly's Keats Obsession
The Washington Post’s Bob Thompson has a long profile of Stanley Plumly and his new book Posthumous Keats, three decades in the making and survivor of a publisher switch, an ended marriage and doubts he wouldn’t finish. Thompson writes: “He sometimes felt like Sisyphus, watching the damn rock roll endlessly back down the hill. But there were other times, Plumly says, when communing with the author of “Ode to a Nightingale” made him feel ‘at least twice alive.'”WaPo
Censorship Cry Against Muslim Writers Award
Max Malik was one of five writers shortlisted for the Muslim Writers Award (and last year’s winner) but he claims in the Telegraph that the book The Butterfly Hunter “was never given to the judges to read” to appease parts of the Muslim community. He said: “My creative effort is being treated as if it is somehow unclean and unworthy. Clearly, the Muslim Writers Awards has decided that the novel is so unpalatable for them that it needs to be buried.” Imran Akram, chief executive of the 2008 awards, countered: “Dr Malik’s submission was certainly one of the best we […]
Dylan Thomas Diary for Sale
A diary offering a rare insight into both sides of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’s infamously rocky marriage to Caitlin McNamara is up for sale, one of 40 pieces being sold for £250,000 on behalf of a New York-based collector by London antiquarian bookseller Rick Gekoski. Gekoski said of the diary, written by Mrs. Thomas: “It was a tumultuous marriage, of that there is no doubt, but what this collection has is both sides of it. It is very raw and emotional. Sometimes she says ‘Oh my God, I wish I’d never married him’ and at other times she wishes she […]
Buffett Bio Now Scheduled for September
The authorized biography of investor Warren Buffett finally has a release date: September 29, according to Bantam Dell. The 976-page book is being written by former Morgan Stanley insurance analyst Alice Schroeder with Buffett’s cooperation and is titled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. The book had been scheduled for a May release in conjunction with Buffett’s insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, but was delayed.USA TODAY
Miramax Latest to Sue for Breach of Contract
After Simon & Schuster launched lawsuits to recover advance money from rappers L’il Kim and Foxy Brown, Miramax is trying the same thing with Alison Pearson, the Daily Mail columnist and author of the 2003 bestseller I Don’t Know How She Does It. They allege Pearson signed a contract five years for an unpublished novel titled I Think I Love You, accepting a $700,000 advance. The suit, filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court, said although Pearson accepted the money in August 2003 under a two-year contract she failed to deliver the novel and ignored requests by Miramax since 2006 […]