‘If publishers become afraid, we’re in trouble’: publishing’s cancel culture debate boils over

Publishing staff, in rows over authors from Mike Pence to Woody Allen, are voicing their reluctance to work on books they deem hateful. But is this really ‘younger refuseniks’, or a much older debate?In the 1960s, Simon & Schuster’s co-founder Max Schuster was facing a dilemma. Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief architect and armaments minister, had written a memoir providing new insights into the workings of Nazi leadership. As Michael Korda, Schuster’s editor-in-chief, recounted in his memoir Another Life, Schuster knew it would be a huge success. “There is only one problem,” he said, “and it’s this: I do not want to see Albert Speer’s name and mine on the same book.”In the liberal industry of publishing, the tension that exists between profit and morality is nothing new, whether it’s Schuster turning down Speer (the book was finally published by Macmillan), or the UK government introducing legislation to prevent criminals making money from writing about their crimes.Too many areas of discussion feel like they’re off limits – which should hardly be the case in an industry that disseminates ideasThis is so often framed as younger editors being oversensitive, rather than acknowledging that what senior editors choose to publish has an impact on the terms of public debateDo we just have to wait for all the people making dodgy editorial decisions with no integrity to retire? Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-06-03 12:12:23 UTC ]

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Celebrating Women in Translation Month: New Translations by Women from around the Globe, by Kayla E. Ciardi

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[ World Literature Today | 2019-08-15 14:12:27 UTC ]
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A Unique and Affecting Memoir Combines Grief and Mushrooms

In “The Way Through the Woods,” Long Litt Woon writes about diving into an obsession with learning about the fungi, and how it helped her mourn for her husband and embrace life again. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-08-14 16:59:06 UTC ]
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Juliet Escoria on Writing a Memoir With No Redemptive Lesson at the End

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[ Literrary Hub | 2019-08-14 08:47:08 UTC ]
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Make summer last longer with the 10 best books of August

The latest mystery from Louise Penny, a probing novel by Richard Russo, and Sarah M. Broom’s memoir of living in New Orleans, all made our list this month. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-12 18:22:23 UTC ]
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Make summer last longer with the 10 best books of August

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-12 18:22:23 UTC ]
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Make summer last longer with the 10 best books of August

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-12 18:22:23 UTC ]
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Make summer last longer with the 10 best books of August

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-12 18:22:23 UTC ]
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Make summer last longer with the 10 best books of August

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-08-12 18:22:23 UTC ]
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Little, Brown signs Gerald Scarfe memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-12 17:12:12 UTC ]
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Fighting Back: Spotlight on Rachael Denhollander

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Letter: Cecil Woolf was generous and sociable

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[ The Guardian | 2019-08-11 16:09:37 UTC ]
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Weekly E-Ranking: Logan's The Holiday jets into the top

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-09 11:11:41 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury scoops psychosis memoir from Curtis Brown agent Catherine Cho

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-07 09:49:35 UTC ]
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Breaking In: Keah Brown on Going From Viral Hashtag Creator to Debut Memoir Author

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[ Writer's Digest | 2019-08-06 17:00:43 UTC ]
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Hillary and Chelsea Clinton co-write The Book of Gutsy Women

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[ The Guardian | 2019-08-06 12:45:53 UTC ]
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He Said, He Said: One Writer’s Account of His Second Act

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[ The New York Times | 2019-08-06 09:00:06 UTC ]
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‘The Yellow House’ Is a Major Memoir About a Large Family and Its Beloved Home

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[ The New York Times | 2019-08-05 16:56:35 UTC ]
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Things ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Characters Do with Books Besides Reading Them

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[ Book Riot | 2019-08-04 10:31:09 UTC ]
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Edward Snowden's memoir was handled as a covert project by his publisher

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-08-01 19:04:36 UTC ]
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Macmillan scoops Snowden memoir in global deal

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-01 17:23:10 UTC ]
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