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 "Plato's ideal sage and king". The phenomenal reviews and sales of his first book, The Outsider (1956), led him to be seen as a potential saviour of the human spirit, a thinker who might find a way through the spiritual nullity of the postwar years.The book remains extraordinary, more for its reach than its grasp. It was an attempt to map a single, negotiable path of mysticism from the span of recent western art and philosophy. Wilson looked for the path through case studies of the agonies and ecstasies of thinkers, artists and men of action including Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Vaslav Nijinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Hermann Hesse and Lawrence of Arabia. He condensed them into a single type, "the Outsider", a questing spirit straddled between devastating experiences of nothingness and moments of the highest insight."Our life in modern society is a repetition of Van Gogh's problem," Wilson said, "the day-to-day struggle for intensity that disappears overnight, interrupted by human triviality and endless pettiness." The book was excitingly written, with a sense of revelation. The failing, which took longer to emerge, was that it oversimplified... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
Schmalzer, who served at Norton from 1974 to 2000, most recently as chief financial officer, died on January 12. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cartoonist and editor of the Charlie Hebdo magazine whose satire knew no bounds Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ruth Bridget Coughlin, former book editor at the 'Detroit News,' passed away on December 25 in Dover, N.J. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s book author Robert San Souci, known for his retellings of folktales and myths, died suddenly on December 19 at his San Francisco home. He was 68. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 1996, the Association of American Publishers awarded Jones a lifetime achievement award for his work in the higher education publishing field. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pam McLucas Byers, a veteran publishing executive on both coasts, died on October 27 after a long illness. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marcus Boggs, former editorial director and publisher at Rowman & Littlefield, passed away on November 1 at his home in The Sea Ranch, Calif. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kay Sexton, former v-p communications for B. Dalton, died on October 17 at her home in Arden Hills, Minn Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Zilpha Keatley Snyder, who received three Newbery Honors for her middle-grade novels, including 'The Egypt Game,' has died. She was 87. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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M. David Detweiler IV, president and chairman of the board of Stackpole, Inc., died on September 27 in Harrisburg, Penn. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sheila Levine, associate director and editorial director of the University of California Press until her retirement in 2011, died September 21 after a long struggle with ovarian cancer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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George Blagowidow, founder of Hippocrene Books, died on September 18. He was 90. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Herbert Lottman, historian of French intellectual life and the longtime European correspondent for 'Publishers Weekly,' died August 27 in Paris. He was 87. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bob Deyan, founder of Deyan Audio Services, passed away on August 19 at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, Calif. due to complications of ALS. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frederick Gale Ruffner Jr., who founded the Gale Research Co., passed away on August 12 at the age of 88, following a long illness. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend and colleague Euan Henderson, who has died aged 71, was in turn a publisher, publishing educator and priest. His early career was at Oxford University Press, both in Oxford and as manager of OUP's Central African branch. Later he ran export sales at Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Born in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former Guardian journalist and co-author of a savagely funny book about the Sun newspaper, Stick It Up Your Punter!Pugnacious and anarchic, the former Guardian journalist Peter Chippindale, who has died aged 69 of kidney failure, assured his reputation with one savagely funny book Stick It Up... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stanley Hochman, editor of reference, and a translator of European literature and nonfiction, died at home of natural causes on August 10. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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L.A. (Louis) Meyer, creator of the swashbuckling Bloody Jack adventure series starring intrepid Mary "Jacky" Farber, died on July 29 in Ellsworth, Maine, of complications from Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was 71. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Malcolm Magruder was William Morrow and Company's director of sales for nearly 10 years and the Southeastern rep for 12 years until his retirement in 1990. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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