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 ]
Publisher whose list of writers included 10 Nobel prizewinnersPeter Owen’s survival as a publisher across 60 years was against all commercial odds. In 1993 he described himself as “one of the few remaining independent publishers specialising in translation”, and at his death aged 89 his mission... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The former ABA president and founder of the Happy Bookseller in Columbia, S.C., died on May 26. He was 91. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bertin, an Air Force veteran and longtime Macmillan sales representative covering the Mid-Atlantic region, died on May 6. He was 79. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Women’s magazine editor and author whose memoir Shoot the Damn Dog recounted her experience of depressionThe journalist and author Sally Brampton, who has died aged 60, created the template for the modern women’s magazine. She was hired as editor when the French magazine Elle launched a British... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first Einstein is Albert. The “other” Einstein is Mileva Maric, the first wife of the famous physicist, whose role in helping to formulate the special theory of relativity in 1905 has been speculated on, but never really known—with the truth mostly lost to history. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Jeremy Lewis on the life of Peter Janson-Smith, a notable literary agent "of the old school". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher, editor, and award-winning children's book author James Cross Giblin died on Sunday, April 10, following a long illness. He was 82. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The former v-p and director of adult field sales at Random House died in hospice care on April 11. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In his latest book the acclaimed comics artist enlists biblical scripture in his ongoing crusade to remove the social (and religious) stigma attached to providing sex for money. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Founder of Arcadia Books, an adventurous publisher of literary fictionGary Pulsifer, who has died of cancer aged 59, was a pioneering publisher of literary fiction, much of it in translation, and the great majority of it through Arcadia Books, the publishing house he founded in 1996. He... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The founder of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, N.C., who helped launch North Carolina's literary revival, died yesterday. She was 75 years old. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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British author and comedian Louise Rennison, whose books about teenager Georgia Nicolson were bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic, has died. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An intellectual property lawyer and former general counsel at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Bursley died on January 30. She was 61. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hillel Black, former publisher of Macmillan and editor-in-chief at William Morrow, died February 8 at the age of 86. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Andrew Pate, who held executive positions with several technology and print-on-demand companies, died November 10 at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 58. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reading Agency chief executive Sue Wilkinson and Andrew Bignall, head of libraries at Hertfordshire, remember Sue Jones. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Skip Skwarek, whose long tenure at Dial Books for Young Readers included roles as managing editor and associate publisher, died of pneumonia on January 15. He was 70. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Liz Thomson takes a look at the life of Lord Weidenfeld, co-founder of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, who has died at the age of 96. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Brilliant and gregarious publisher who arrived in Britain as a refugee from nazism and co-founded his own firm with Nigel Nicolson in the late 1940sGeorge Weidenfeld, Lord Weidenfeld, who has died aged 96, belonged to that remarkable group of Jewish refugees who transformed postwar British... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's book author and educator Andrea Cheng, whose books often focused on intercultural and intergenerational relationships, died on December 26 following a long illness. She was 58. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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