He is long known to have used composite characters and a new biography will reveal more embellishments – but perhaps that’s the magic of his workOver the weekend, the feathers of American literary journalists ruffled lightly in the breeze of a review that appeared in the New York Review of Books. The review, written by longtime New Yorker staff writer Janet Malcolm, was of an upcoming biography of another New Yorker staff writer, Joseph Mitchell, due to be published in the United States on 28 April. Malcolm’s review can be read as a pre-emptive defence of Mitchell’s legacy as one of the giants of American literary journalism. The biographer in question, Thomas Kunkel, has apparently found more evidence of what was already somewhat known: that Mitchell embellished his nonfiction, often condensing characters and facts to smooth out his stories. In one already well-known example, a long piece called Old Mr Flood condenses several men’s stories into the titular Mr Flood. Mitchell admitted this openly in a preface to the book later published under that name.He has mixed up nonfiction with fiction. He has made an unwholesome, almost toxic brew out of the two genres. It is too bad he is dead and can’t be pilloried. Or perhaps it is all right that he is dead, because he is suffering the torments of hell for his sins against the spirit of fact. And so on.Every writer of nonfiction who has struggled with the ditch and the bushes knows what Mitchell is talking about, but few of us... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph has bought a memoir from Jake Tyler, the mental health advocate, adventurer, runner, walker and depression sufferer who made headlines when he embarked on a 3,000-mile journey around the UK. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-08 12:33:17 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph has landed Latitude by geographer, explorer, writer and broadcaster Nicholas Crane, telling the story of the world’s first international scientific expedition, which set out to find the shape of the earth. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 20:56:14 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph has won a multi-publisher auction for Charmaine Wilkerson's “dazzling” debut novel Black Cake in a six-figure deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-30 13:42:20 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph has triumphed in a five-way auction for Evening Standard features editor Phoebe Luckhurst's “hilarious” debut novel The Lock In. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 12:02:59 UTC ]
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Doubleday will publish Joseph Knox's True Crime Story, which the author calls his "most ambitious work", in summer 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-24 06:42:54 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph has acquired The Hollow Sea by Annie Kirby, a literary debut about grief, recovery, and identity, set to be a lead hardback for 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-17 11:44:41 UTC ]
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The complicated life of Elias Demetracopoulos, who had as many detractors as sources. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Larry Tye highlights the havoc wreaked by the senator’s anti-communist campaign. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-27 05:18:50 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Angry Robot Books has extended indefinitely its open submission window for sci-fi and fantasy novels by black authors, following a positive response to the initiative. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-24 03:52:28 UTC ]
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Quercus has acquired Me and White Supremacy: A Guided Journal by Layla F Saad, intended to be an "official companion" to the original helping readers to recognise their privilege and combat racism. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-24 03:33:55 UTC ]
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While recent efforts are encouraging, publishing needs to establish permanent methods to give people of color more opportunities. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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We asked educators across the country how they are taking action to address racism and social justice with their students. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Since the killing of George Floyd in late May, the book publishing industry, overwhelmingly white at every level, seems to have reached a period of reckoning about its own history of exclusionary hiring practices. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Allen editorial director Jamie Joseph has been promoted to head of the Ebury imprint. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 00:21:15 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has acquired Everyone Versus Racism—a book by Patrick Hutchinson, who was photographed carrying an injured white man during London's Black Lives Matter protests. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 17:18:36 UTC ]
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Oryx, the international journal of conservation published by Cambridge University Press, is to become Open Access from January next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 04:40:54 UTC ]
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Three academics have claimed Edinburgh University Press tried to censor their journal article on gender self-identification in an “exceptional breach of normal practice” over transphobia fears. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-03 01:23:20 UTC ]
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The Women’s Prize for Fiction is launching a crowdfunding campaign with publisher Unbound, in honour of its 25th anniversary, to create The Women’s Prize for Fiction Journal: Celebrating 25 years of #ReadingWomen. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-21 05:08:34 UTC ]
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Thomas & Mercer, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, has signed a two-book deal with writing partners Dreda Say Mitchell and Tony Mason. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-20 12:20:43 UTC ]
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Bonnier Books UK is releasing 500 Words: Black Lives Matter, a book featuring short stories children have submitted to a Chris Evans-devised Virgin Radio competition this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-16 10:43:26 UTC ]
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