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 Balliol College, Oxford. Descended from the Forster family which had owned Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, Mary and her cousins lived in the castle during holidays.In the 1930s Mary married Anthony Cowan. After the second world war they moved to Newton, near Edinburgh, where Mary raised their four children. With little formal schooling, mainly having been tutored at home, Mary read widely and grew critical of the role of British imperialism in the Middle East and Africa, no doubt influenced by her cousins Thomas and Edward Hodgkin, authors respectively of books on Africa and Palestine.She became active in the Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam, and in her 60s went to work in Vietnam, a country she felt great sympathy for as it emerged from the war. Mary admired the resilience and fortitude of the Vietnamese people. She was much valued for her work translating Vietnamese poetry from French into English; these and some of her own poems have been published, the latter in Singing in Tune with Time: Stories and Poems about Ageing (1993) and in the Scottish magazine Cencrastus.A keen reader of the Morning Star, Mary supported progressive, anti-imperialist change everywhere – in Cuba,... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
Remarkable editor at André Deutsch who later in life found success as a frank and clear-sighted memoiristDiana Athill, who has died aged 101, was one of book publishing’s most remarkable editors, but in the latter part of her life it was her own writing that brought her much-enjoyed literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gail Browning, former Random House v-p and divisional sales director, died January 19 at the age of 80. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist wrote lyrically about nature, but there's more to her work than meets the eye. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Miguel Aguilar remembers Claudio López de Lamadrid—"He radiated confidence. When you were with him you felt that things could only turn out well." Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jane Havell, who has died aged 65 of pancreatic cancer, was my business partner in the independent publishing house Maia Press.We planned the launch of the company over a kitchen table with a large glass of wine in 2002 and over the next six years, before it was bought by Arcadia, we published... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Audrey Stone Geisel, philanthropist and widow of the late children’s book icon Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, died on December 19 at her home in La Jolla, Calif.; she was 97. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Talia Rodgers, publishing director at Digital Theatre, remembers editor and publisher Claire L'Enfant: Claire L’Enfant, who has died aged 67, was an editor and publisher whose work with authors and colleagues set a kind of gold standard for how to get the best out of people. Her quiet... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Price, who has died aged 89, was a publisher of rare imagination and conviction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer, campaigner and passionate critic of austerity who found fame late in life with his bestselling book Harry’s Last StandIf proof were ever needed that it is never too late to make a major impact, Harry Leslie Smith, who has died aged 95, surely offers it. He was 91 when his bestselling... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Longtime children's book marketing executive Kaylee N. Davis died on October 30 of complications from a recent surgery; she was 63. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling author of ‘The Message’ Bible translation and several other works died at age 85 on October 22. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Salt will next year publish Your Fault, about one boy’s childhood from first memory to first love, by Andrew Cowan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Translator best known for her witty English rendering of Asterix, the popular French comic book seriesIn 1970 Anthea Bell found herself with the tricky task of translating Asterix in Britain. The eighth adventure in the comic book series about everyone’s favourite Gaul rested on a French view of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mary Kathleen "Kate" Dopirak, a rising children’s book author, died on October 10 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare degenerative brain disorder; she was 43. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The philosopher Mary Midgley passed away at the age of 99 on Saturday, her family has announced. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eleanor "Lee" Hochman, a translator of French literature and nonfiction and also a longtime copyediting chief at New American Library, died at home in New York City on October 6, of natural causes. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Distinguished historian, journalist and scholar who focused on terrorism, the Holocaust and the decline of EuropeThe contemporary historian and journalist Walter Laqueur, who has died aged 97, made the great issues of the past century accessible to a wide readership in the almost 100 book titles... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Liz Hohenadel, senior publicity manager at Riverhead, died September 24 as a result of a medical condition that arose suddenly a few months ago. She was 34. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Russian-born children’s book illustrator Vladimir Radunsky died on September 11 in Rome, Italy, of leukemia. He was 64. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Journalist with a chaotic, creative career in the underground press, who was in at the launch of New York’s Village VoiceIn 1954, soon after he arrived in New York City as a jobbing Yorkshire-born journalist, John Wilcock put up a notice in a Greenwich Village bookshop. It invited people... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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