The writer and editor promoted Joseph Conrad and DH Lawrence and deserves recognition as a great literary tastemakerThe first question worth asking of Helen Smith’s A-grade biography of Edward Garnett (1868‑1937) is just how many manuscripts passed across the desk of this publishers’ reader in his lifetime. Very little hard data is vouchsafed, but Smith estimates that, in 1917, John Lane was forwarding him between 400 and 500 items a year. A decade later, the contents of the weekly parcel sent to his house in Kent is put at eight to 10. All this suggests that in a 50-year career, beginning with the firm of T Fisher Unwin and ending with Jonathan Cape, Garnett may have worked his way through 20,000 unpublished novels – 150m words, say, forming a pile that, if laid end to end, would stretch from one side of central London to the other.Naturally there were times when this decades-long sojourn in what George Gissing called the Valley of the Shadow of Books became oppressive and Garnett began to feel that he was pouring his immortal spirit down the drain a pint at a time. A rather plaintive letter survives from November 1910 in which he informs John Galsworthy: “I get very low sometimes as to the secondhand sort of existence that is implied in the game and its sequelae.” But there was gold lurking among the dross, and a list of the famous names that he turned up in the slush pile would be enough to fill a literary Who’s Who. The Nobel-winning Galsworthy, Conrad and the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
It’s been over a year since Peter Parker and Miles Morales joined forces for their epic crossover adventure game on the Sony PlayStation 5. Now they are swinging their way to PCs early next year. Sony announced at New York Comic Con today that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is getting a PC release on... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-10-18 22:31:43 UTC ]
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The writer and editor promoted Joseph Conrad and DH Lawrence and deserves recognition as a great literary tastemakerThe first question worth asking of Helen Smith’s A-grade biography of Edward Garnett (1868‑1937) is just how many manuscripts passed across the desk of this publishers’ reader in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Morpurgo, Meg Rosoff and Chris Riddell are among the famous names who will be appearing at the inaugural International Children’s Literature Hay Festival Aarhus 2017. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US senator Bernie Sanders, Man Booker Prize winner Paul Beatty, veteran director Ken Loach and actress Charlotte Rampling are among the famous names on the line-up for the 30th Hay Festival. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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