“A surprising number of bettors correctly chose French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio to win the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature — leading the Nobel prize jury to suspect a leak,” the AP reports. Swedish Academy permanent secretary (and anti-American) Horace Engdahl has a “strong suspicion that there has been a leak in the system.” British bookmaker Ladbrooke’s saw the odds on Le Clezio fall from 14-to-1 down to a 1-to-2 favorite right before the announcement. But Engdahl does not fault himself, though he admits reading a book by Le Clezio while flying back to Sweden last week, saying he […]
New York DFW Memorial
Friends and fellow writers will speak in remembrance and appreciation of the life of David Foster Wallace in a memorial service held by Little, Brown and open to the public, scheduled for Thursday, October 23rd, at 4pm at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU.
People, and More
At Holt’s Metropolitan Books, Sara Bershtel has been promoted to vp, publisher. Elsewhere at Holt, Karen Frangipane has been hired as director of marketing for Holt Children’s. She was at Simon and Schuster. Gordon Willoughby will take over as the head of the book business at Amazon.co.uk tomorrow. He was vp of operations and customer support for Europe at eBay. Willoughby will report to vp of media Christopher North. In Europe, Lulu.com has layed off “almost a quarter of its employees,” with European vp Cristel Lee Leed among the 24 people being let go. CEO Bob Young tells NewMediaAge “with […]
Nobel for France's Le Clezio
As promised, the Nobel judges continue to think most highly of European writers, naming Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, 68, the winner of the 2008 prize for literature. Le Clezio is “regarded by some French readers as one of the country’s greatest living writers,” the NYT notes, and his work ranges from novels to children’s books and essays. The Nobel judges called him an ”author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.” They also like he has ”stood out as an ecologically engaged” writer, an “orientation that is accentuated with […]
Reagan Arthur Gets an Imprint
Little, Brown is highlighting the “extraordinary success” of editor Reagan Arthur by establishing the Reagan Arthur Books imprint. Arthur will have the title of vp, editorial director of the new line, though she will continue to report to Geoff Shandler. Oliver Haslegrave moves over to the line as associate editor, and Marlena Bittner will be assistant director of publicity for Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown, with “additional support staff to be appointed in the weeks ahead.” The first list will publish in fall 2009 and they plan on growing the line to 15 to 20 books a year. Publisher Michael Pietsch […]
WH Smith: A Bookseller Whose Stock Actually Rises
WH Smith presented the market with a pleasant surprise, reporting sales of 1.352 million pounds, up 4 percent for the year, with profits rising 15 percent to 76 million pounds, above analysts’ expectations. Like-for-like book sales were “flat excluding the impact of last year’s Harry Potter release” (aka “down”). “Gross margin was up year on year. We were pleased with our share performance versus the general high street,” the company said. And among their travel stores, “extended books charts, improved display of chart titles and strong promotions have contributed to our books performance and we have also seen an encouraging […]