One of the most celebrated American novelists best known for his historical fiction whose books Ragtime and Billy Bathgate were turned into filmsAnointed “our pre-eminent lefty” among contemporary American novelists, EL Doctorow, who has died aged 84, was praised as the “epic poet” of the forgotten American left. It was praise that he did not welcome. He proved elusive when dealing with the pigeonholes crafted by reviewers, and not a few readers. In a career spanning five decades, Doctorow feared that tidy labels were a distraction. He lived contentedly within the paradoxes of his career.He did not want to be called a political novelist. “My premise is that the language of politics can’t accommodate the complexity of fiction, which as a mode of thought is intuitive, metaphysical, mythic.” Although he wrote lovingly of the lost world of the Jewish Bronx in the 1930s, where he grew up, he rejected the idea that he was an autobiographical writer. “Every book is an act of composition,” he remarked in 1989, “and if you happen to use memories or materials from your own mind, they are like any other resource; they have to be composed. And the act of composition has no regard where the material comes from. So when it’s all done it’s all autobiographical and none of it is.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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El País, which had avoided the losses that have hit the newspaper industry worldwide as it struggles with the transition to digital publishing, announced it would dismiss one-third of its staff. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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EL James has been revealed as Amazon.co.uk’s bestselling ebook author ever, with her debut... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 22/08/2011 - 14:15 Bloomsbury has bought a non-fiction title about one of the great footballing rivalries in the modern game, between that of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Sport and Wisden publisher Charlotte Atyeo bought world English rights to El... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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