Journalist, biographer and author who explored the history of property ownership in AmericaThe Scottish author Andro Linklater was fascinated by the relationship between people and land. His death at the age of 68 from a heart attack came while he was on the isle of Eigg, researching for a new book on the history of land ownership in the Hebrides. The originality he brought to the subject reflected his talents as a biographer and journalist – the effects of individuals' ideas were represented in terms graphic enough to be grasped readily.Measuring America (2002) explored how the US took the British measurement of a chain – 22 yards, the length of a cricket pitch or 1/80 of a mile – so that the Public Land Survey System could register land across the continent and make it saleable. Traditionally the rugged individual has been taken as the driving force of the young republic: Linklater showed how America's democracy and laws, its government, evolved in large part to support the property rights of those individuals.The Fabric of America (2007) returned to Linklater's fascination with surveyors, illuminating Andrew Ellicott's central role in establishing the country's borders and boundaries – again deepening understanding of the nation's roots. Owning the Earth (published in Britain in January and in the US last week) chronicles the enormous impact on civilisation of private property, an idea revolutionary 500 years ago that now seems simple: the notion that "one person could... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher adept at balancing the demands of literature and commerce, and a notable writer on artIn his prime, with his coloured shirts, red braces, bright bow ties and macho cigars there were few more flamboyant London publishers than Tom Rosenthal, who has died aged 78. But the extravagant top... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Mary Cowan, who has died aged 99, rebelled against her privileged background and in the 1930s became a communist.She was born in Edinburgh, where her father, John Jameson, was the Conservative MP for Edinburgh West. Her mother, Margaret (nee Smith), was the daughter of a master of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Britain's first homegrown existentialist star, he failed to follow up the huge success of his 1956 book, The OutsiderFor a few dazzling months, Colin Wilson, who has died aged 82, was taken at his own valuation in his diary as "the major literary genius of our century", a writer destined to be... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher of military history books and husband of Jilly CooperLeo Cooper, who has died aged 79 after suffering from Parkinson's disease, was a publisher with a zeal for military history, who also enjoyed some notoriety as the husband of the novelist Jilly Cooper.Leo's hospitality was out of all... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Paul Westlake, who has died of cancer aged 65, was a pillar of the radical publishing world from the mid-1970s onwards. He was an advocate of workers' co-operatives and gained much experience in ensuring that the output of independent publishers reached the bookshops.In autumn 1976,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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