Author of the 1970s cult bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceWhen, in 1968, Robert Pirsig, who has died aged 88, sent a synopsis and sample of his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to 122 publishers, only one showed any interest, and James Landis, the editor who responded from William Morrow, warned him not to expect either a large advance or big sales. But within a month Pirsig set off on his Honda Super Hawk, accompanied by his young son, Chris, and friends John and Sylvia Sutherland, on the 17-day journey from Minneapolis to San Francisco that, six years, two drafts and some 700,000 words later, became the basis of an immediate bestseller. Millions of readers were drawn to this guidebook for the transition of a culture from the rebellious 1960s to the “me generation” of the 70s.George Steiner’s New Yorker review, titled Uneasy Rider, famously compared the book to Herman Melville’s sprawling masterpiece Moby-Dick; other reviewers mentioned Thoreau, whose American transcendentalism also sought to link everyday life and the metaphysical. In a road novel in the spirit of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Pirsig drew on the aphoristic humour of hippy writers such as Richard Brautigan. “Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a 30,000-page menu and no food,” he wrote. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author-illustrator Tomie dePaola, widely known for his stylized folk-art illustrations and vast catalogue of popular picture books, died March 30 of complications from surgery following a fall. He was 85. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Madison Smartt Bell’s “Child of Light” is a revealing biography of the author of “Dog Soldiers” and “A Flag for Sunrise.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-27 17:30:40 UTC ]
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My mother, Lilian Mohin, who has died aged 81, was a co-founder in the 1970s of the London-based feminist publishing house Onlywomen Press, for which she wrote and edited works of literature and poetry. Lilian set up Onlywomen Press in 1974 with Sheila Shulman and Deborah Hart – and was a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-03-13 16:34:45 UTC ]
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Susanne Woods, founder and publisher of needle and sewing crafts publisher Lucky Spool Media, died February 19, 2020, of complications from metastatic breast cancer. She was 47. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning journalist, poet, and rising children's book author Gail Shepherd died of complications from a brain tumor on February 24 in Lake Worth, Fla.; she was 62. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Prolific children’s author Betsy Byars, winner of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award, died on February 26 in Seneca, S.C.; she was 91. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Prolific author of fast-paced thrillers, including Raise the Titanic!, featuring the adventure hero Dirk PittThe prolific and popular novelist Clive Cussler, who has died aged 88, combined adventure and technology into fast-paced thrillers. Ubiquitous and easily recognisable on airport... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-02-27 16:45:35 UTC ]
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The title and publication date of the new Robert Galbraith novel, featuring Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, has been revealed by Sphere. The fifth book is Troubled Blood and will come out in hardback on 29th September 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-18 21:18:01 UTC ]
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This week, Anand Giridharadas reviews “The New Class War,” by Michael Lind. In 2014, Giridharadas wrote for the Book Review about “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,” in which Jeff Hobbs wrote about his murdered college roommate. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-01-16 22:37:52 UTC ]
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My son Piers Jones, who has died aged 47 from cancer, worked as a digital publishing expert at the Guardian for eight years before becoming the first chief digital officer at the Natural History Museum in London.In various roles at the Guardian from 2008 onwards he helped to make it possible for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-01-03 12:22:41 UTC ]
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Da Chen, whose memoirs for both adults ('Colors of the Mountain') and young readers ('Girl Under a Red Moon') chronicled his experiences growing up during China's Cultural Revolution, died of lung cancer on December 17 in Temecula, Calif.; he was 57. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Linda Cannon, co-owner of Parson Weems’ Publisher Services and a longtime bookseller and sales rep, died on December 5 following a brief illness. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Prolific children's author Andrew Clements, best known for his popular middle grade novel 'Frindle,' died on November 28 in West Baldwin, Me., following an illness; he was 70. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The pioneering underground and queer cartoonist and author of the acclaimed queer/civil rights graphic novel 'Stuck Rubber Baby,' died November 26, from lymphoma. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Catherine “Sally” Lindsay, formerly v-p of merchandising and marketing at Koen Book Distributors, died at her home in Rockville, Md., on November 27. She was 70. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Spurgeon, author, editor, comics critic, blogger, and executive director of the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus comics festival, died of unknown causes in Columbus, Ohio, on November 13. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Ernest J. Gaines, award-winning author of the acclaimed novel 'The Autobiography of Jane Pittman,' and a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient, died of a heart attack at his home in Oscar, La. He was 86. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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FOR A BOOK WRITTEN in the past five years, Robert Menasse’s The Capital, published for the first time in the United States last month in a translation by Jamie Bulloch, feels strangely dated. In the time it’s taken the novel to win the 2017 German Book Prize and be translated into English, the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-11 19:00:17 UTC ]
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