A deliciously original study of the cheap editions of Pride and Prejudice and other novels – ignored by literary scholars – casts new light on her readershipJane Austen aficionados think that they know the story of their favourite author’s posthumous dis-appearance and then re-emergence. For half a century after she died in 1817, her books were little known or read. A few discriminating admirers such as George Henry Lewes and Lord Macaulay kept the flame of her reputation burning, but most novelists and novel readers were oblivious to her. Then, in 1869, her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published a memoir about her and the public got interested. Her novels started being republished and widely read. She has never looked back.Janine Barchas’s The Lost Books of Jane Austen puts us right. Her book about books is a beautifully illustrated exploration, indeed compendium, of the popular editions of Austen’s novels that have appeared over the last two centuries. This includes those decades when Austen was supposedly lost from sight. The first chapter is a “vignette” on a copy of Sense and Sensibility, published in 1851 for George Routledge’s Railway Library (books suitable for reading on the train). It cost one shilling and was bought for the 13-year-old Gertrude Wallace, the youngest daughter of a Plymouth naval officer. It is the first of many examples of cheap and popular editions of Austen’s work that kept it alive for ordinary readers and that literary scholars have... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-12-11 07:30:31 UTC ]
Pan Macmillan has snapped up the autobiography of Shane "Shakey" Byrne, the most successful British Superbike Championship rider in history, in a three-publisher auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-01 00:46:31 UTC ]
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During one of my first open mics in New York City, the comic running the mic tapped me on the elbow after my set and said, “Hey, you’re funny!” She sounded surprised. I was, too. Being funny wasn’t my main goal. I was there to spy on comics, trying to experience the highs and lows […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-31 08:49:06 UTC ]
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Susan Straight's new memoir, "In the Country of Women," depicts the tough, trauma-burdened women who have populated her life. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-07-30 19:40:36 UTC ]
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HarperCollins imprint 4th Estate will publish Whitesnake musician Bernie Marsden's memoir in November 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-30 07:38:39 UTC ]
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TWO RECENT TITLES from the University Press of Florida make for a remarkably successful pairing: one focuses on the “golden years” of George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet through the memoir lens of former soloist Bettijane Sills, while the other offers, through a series of impressionistic... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-28 17:00:03 UTC ]
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Piper Kerman, whose experiences and memoir inspired the Netflix prison dramedy, now works with inmates in correctional facilities. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-26 10:00:07 UTC ]
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Piper Kerman, whose experiences and memoir inspired the Netflix prison dramedy, now works with inmates in correctional facilities. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-26 10:00:06 UTC ]
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Bud Selig’s memoir misses the sport’s magic, while two statheads explain its inspiring innovations. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-25 16:00:00 UTC ]
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On Nadina LaSpina’s SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a new memoir about being disabled in Sicily and New York from the 50s onward. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-07-24 10:33:40 UTC ]
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THE TRAGEDY OF THIS slim, self-satisfied little memoir about the 2007–2008 financial crisis is not what it gets wrong. Indeed, four of its central arguments are important and exactly right: (1) that extraordinary measures and creative innovation and improvisation saved the entire financial... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-22 19:00:44 UTC ]
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Crowdfunding publisher Unbound has launched YouTuber Jack Maynard's memoir and guide to living online. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 01:52:22 UTC ]
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JAMES BALDWIN HAS GROWN into the wise, guiding elder of the United States’s fractured racial conversation. His presence is at times almost palpable. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his memoir Between the World and Me (2015) as a letter to his teenage son, directly invoking Baldwin’s addressing his... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-18 12:30:39 UTC ]
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John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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Stevens’s “The Making of a Justice” is both a personal memoir and a meditation on the law. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-17 13:32:04 UTC ]
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Last night, Variety reported that Lakeith Stanfield (also known as the actual best part of Atlanta, there I said it, don’t @ me) to star in a feature film adaptation of Kwame Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef—which is an essential cooking memoir that you should go read immediately if you... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-16 14:28:13 UTC ]
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Imagine that you are a character from a classic tale pitching your memoir to a literary agent. You know that it will become the next bestseller. Write your query letter, story synopsis, or elevator pitch to the agent. The post It’s My Story and I’ll Pitch if I Want To by Cassandra Lipp appeared... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-07-16 09:00:28 UTC ]
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Virago has scooped an "eye-opening” memoir from broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, based around what she sees from the upper deck of a London bus. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-15 11:56:36 UTC ]
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The Spanish philosopher and poet George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As a genre, historical fiction allows us to shuttle back in time to stand in the shoes, clogs, chopines, and go-go boots of people—real and imagined—to consider the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-15 11:00:13 UTC ]
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