Books & Writing – Page 26 – The Great Gray Bridge

#FridayReads, Nov. 23–“The Double Game” and “Gotham”

This week, more of a #FridayRe-Reads than a #FridayReads

#FridayReads, Nov. 23–The Double Game, Dan Fesperman’s brilliant riff on the spy novel genre, and Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace. It may be the distractions of the holiday week–I’ve just been re-reading a couple of favorites. Last summer I blogged about Fesperman’s novel, and found it so irresistible I’ve picked it up again. The author ingeniously embeds plot points and clues in his story from books by giants of the genre–Le Carre, Ambler, Greene, Buchan, Childers, and others–actual volumes that are in the personal library of the novel’s narrator. It’s a true tour de force, and so good I find myself challenged to say something truly intelligent about it. It was published last August, and I’ve been a bit disappointed to see that it seems to have been published without the notice it deserves.

Gotham, published by Oxford University Press in 1999, is a rare book written by scholars in that it is as readable as any novel or potboiler. Although the narrative proceeds chronologically from the establishment of New Amsterdam through the incorporation of the five boroughs in to one great city, there are tremendous set pieces in it–on the electrification of the metropolis; the Draft Riots; the rise of a national publishing scene from Manhattan, and many others. A second volume, bringing the history of the city up to the present, is due to be published at some future point. Meantime, I relish this initial volume, so good on so many aspects of New York City history. Before publication it was praised by the late Edward Robb Ellis, about whom I blogged on the latest anniversary of his birthday. I published four books by Ellis, including his worthy predecessor to Gotham, The Epic of New York City. Eddie blurbed Burrows’ and Wallace’s book, saying, “Gotham is a masterpiece. It is the best history of New York ever written. It will be read a century from now.”

This week I’ve also read and savored writer Nick Paumgarten’s thorough examination of the Grateful Dead’s library of in-concert live recordings that’s running in the current New Yorker. I actually disagree with some of his dismissive conclusions about the Dead’s music, but am appreciative of the effort he went to in listening to these many hours of music, as well as visiting with the archivists and band members such as Phil Lesh.

The National Book Awards–Debating How to Move Forward

November 21, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing, Media, Blogging, Internet, Publishing & Bookselling /by Philip Turner

Here’s an excellent literary commentary from Publishers Weekly, by indie book publishers Chris Fischbach and Fiona McCrae, on how the National Book Awards could be reformed–and equally important, the direction they believe the reforms should not take. The 2012 Awards were given last week, so this is very timely, with Fischbach and McCrae noting a recent NY Times article which reported that “the National Book Foundation is reviewing changes to its procedures in order to ‘create more splash’ and in particular to address criticisms that ‘in recent years judges had preferred little-known authors, which diminished the award’s stature.’”

They urge the Foundation not to make the annual awards into a contest that merely rewards “big books’ by “big authors” from “big publishers,” which most of the year “get the lion’s share of attention.” By contrast, they say, “the annual national awards provide an opportunity to audit the year’s books and to come up with lists that either echo the year’s noise and/or illuminate books that for whatever reason have remained under the mainstream radar. The element of surprise and discovery, we would argue, is absolutely part of the value of these awards.” I also found that the Times article mentioned some good ideas that are being contemplated, such as involving younger book industry people at award-related events during NBA week. For my part, I think the Foundation should continue doing more to reach out beyond the book industry to involve avid readers.

I recommend you read the excellent column by Fischbach and McCrae which affirms the vibrancy of the independent publishing spirit.
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Nov. 28 Graywolf Press Update: Speaking of Graywolf, PW‘s Claire Kirch has also published this profile of them, Graywolf Press in a New Era. Last, I made one of Graywolf’s current titles, Mary Jo Bang’s new translation of Dante’s Inferno, my #FridayReads last April 27.

Find a Way to Preserve Libraries, So We All May Flourish

November 20, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

In the UK, Canada, and the USA public libraries are under threat of reduced funding, outright defunding, and total closure. Increasingly, authors are inserting themselves into public discussions of the future of libraries. In Toronto, Margaret Atwood helped prevent drastic cuts to the city’s library budget, but only after a local politician, the brother of Mayor Rob Ford, made a fool of himself. According to the Toronto Star, upon learning that Atwood had urged Torontonians to let City Council know of their determined support for libraries, Councillor Doug Ford

“said that the literary icon and activist—who took him to task on Twitter for saying, erroneously, that his Etobicoke ward has more libraries than Tim Hortons [coffee shops]—should get herself elected to office or pipe down. ‘Well good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don’t even know her. If she walked by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is,’ said the councillor and advisor to his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, after a committee meeting on proposed cuts. ‘She’s not down here, she’s not dealing with the problem. Tell her to go run in the next election and get democratically elected. And we’d be more than happy to sit down and listen to Margaret Atwood.’”

What followed was an outpouring of support for Atwood so pronounced that both Fords have since backed off of their effort to close Toronto libraries.

Aggressive know-nothingism is also found among American politicians. In 2000 Senator Hillary Clinton referred to E.B. White in a debate during her campaign for re-election. Incredibly, then-Governor George Pataki told media in the post-debate spin room said, “It doesn’t sound to me like that guy was a New Yorker or understood New York the way we do.”

The future of libraries is especially dire in Britain, due to the severe austerity imposed by David Cameron’s government, hitting all sectors of British society, from schools to rubbish pick-up to recreation to the libraries. This week, author Jeannette Winterson gave an impassioned speech at the British Library where she called for dragooning tax revenues due from the UK divisions of Amazon, Google, and Starbucks to support the country’s endangered library systems. Controversy has attached to those three companies over their apparent efforts to park profits from their UK operations in offshore tax havens. According to The Guardian’s report, Winterson took a very personal turn toward the end of her remarks.

She ended by telling the story of how she discovered TS Eliot in her local library in Accrington, aged 16 and about to be thrown out of the house by her mother “for breaking a very big rule – the rule was not just No Sex, but definitely No Sex with your own Sex”. Scared and unhappy, Winterson went to collect her mother’s books from the library–including Murder in the Cathedral, which her mother had assumed was “a gory story about nasty monks”. Winterson took a look, having never heard of TS Eliot, and saw it was written in verse.

“The librarian told me he was an American poet who had lived in England for most of his life. He had died in 1964, and he had won the Nobel prize. I wasn’t reading poetry because my aim was to work my way through ENGLISH LITERATURE IN PROSE A-Z. But this was different. I read: ‘This is one moment/ But know that another/ shall pierce you with a sudden painful joy.’ I started to cry,” she said.

She went outside and read the whole thing, sitting on the steps. “The unfamiliar and beautiful play made things bearable that day, and the things it made bearable were another failed family–the first one was not my fault but all adopted children blame themselves,” she said. “The second failure was definitely my fault. I was confused about sex and sexuality, and upset about the straightforward practical problems of where to live, what to eat, and how to do my A-levels. I had no one to help me, but TS Eliot helped me. I had no one to help me, but the library helped me. That’s why I’m here tonight.”

J.R.R. Tolkien Renounced Racial Politics in 1938 Letter to a German Publisher

November 18, 2012/1 Comment/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

Here’s another gem from Letters of Note, the second from the epistolary blog I’ve posted today, after this earlier example concerning the Cleveland Browns football team. The latest shows that in 1938, a German publisher interested in possibly translating The Hobbit for its market, asked J.R.R. Tolkien for “proof of his Aryan descent.” According to blog curator Shaun Usher, “Tolkien was furious, and forwarded their letter to his publisher along with two possible replies—one in which their question was delicately side-stepped, and one, seen below, in which Tolkien made his displeasure known with considerable style.”

Before presenting the text of that second letter, it’d be pertinent to mention that when I studied biblical criticism, one of my subject areas at Franconia College, the English-language translation of the bible I used most was the Jerusalem Bible, a special scholarly translation published in 1966. As can be seen below from the acknowledgments facing the title page, “the list of principal collaborators in translation and literary revision,” included Tolkien, a renowned and prolific linguist who by some estimates knew more than 30 languages, including many ancient tongues from the ancient near east.

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch [Aryan]. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung [lineage].

I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully,

J. R. R. Tolkien

I admire the explicit philo-semitism that Tolkien adopted in his reply, as I have indicated with the emphasis in bold. Here’s the acknowledgments page from the Jerusalem Bible.

#FridayReads, Nov. 16–“The White Lioness” by Henning Mankell

November 16, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Nov. 16–The White Lioness, a Kurt Wallander mystery by Henning Mankell. Another terrific police procedural featuring the humane and likable Swedish detective.

A Memoirist Can Go Home Again, and Not Get Shot

November 10, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing, Publishing & Bookselling /by Philip Turner

A good article in the Saturday NY Times zeroes in on memoirist Domingo Martinez whose book The Boy Kings of Texas is one of five nonfiction finalists for the National Book Award, which will be handed out this Wednesday in a black tie ceremony here in New York City. Laura Tillman reports that Martinez’s book is a frank and raw portrait of his troubled young life and violent upbringing in Brownsville, TX. The dateline on the article is Brownsville, which is key, because Tillman had the opportunity be with Martinez on a recent trip he made to his hometown. Tillman writes,

“It was the first time Domingo Martinez had returned here in nearly 10 years, and it seemed as if nothing and everything had changed. His street, once rutted caliche, was now potholed pavement. Favorite stores had shuttered, but new mom-and-pops still sold tamales and tacos, and the 18-foot border fence between the United States and Mexico slashed rust brown through farmland panoramas.

Mostly, Mr. Martinez marveled at how the decade had worn on his grandmother Virginia Campos Rubio, softening that gun-slinging lioness into a slow-moving 85-year-old with a gentle smile. Ms. Rubio is one of the central characters in Mr. Martinez’s book. . . . In the book Mr. Martinez describes how an abusive, starvation-plagued childhood filled Ms. Rubio with rage, making her both loved and feared in the barrio where he grew up. She still keeps a pistol on her bed, alongside a copy of the Bible, a doll and a bag of cheese puffs.”

Martinez approached the visit with some trepidation, actually fearing possible reprisals from people he’s written about.

“’I was terrified about coming back to Texas,” Mr. Martinez said. “I was afraid that I was going to have a violent confrontation—that I’d get shot.’”

In short, not everyone is happy with the portrait he’s painted. Lecherous neighbors and abusive relatives populate the memoir’s pages. Mr. Martinez said the accounts themselves hadn’t been disputed, but that didn’t make the public airing of dirty laundry easier to bear. . . . No brawls took place on the trip. Instead Mr. Martinez was fed caldo de res, a beef-and-vegetable soup (prepared by his father) and mole with chicken and rice (prepared by his grandmother). He was applauded by more than a thousand students, visited by old teachers and given many congratulations. His immediate family supports the book, though he said it had been too painful for his parents to read. His grandmother doesn’t speak English, and Mr. Martinez said he hoped she wouldn’t be exposed to the book’s contents.”

I’m eager to read such an honest memoir, and more than happy for the author and the people involved in its publication. His literary agent is Alice Fried Martell, whom I mentioned on this blog when we both attended the Publishing People for Obama fundraiser last June. As an in-house acquiring editor I always enjoyed reading submissions from her clients. I learned from Keith Wallman, a longtime editorial colleague when we were both with Carroll & Graf, now at Lyons Press, that Alice sold the book to another editor there, Lara Asher. Lyons Press is a Connecticut house that has never before had a National Book Award nominee. There I’m friendly with publisher Janet Goldklang, who last year brought out James Kunen’s superb Diary of a Company Man: Losing a Job, Finding a Life.

The Boy Kings of Texas is nominated alongside books by fellow finalists Robert Caro, Anne Applebaum, Katherine Boo, and the late Anthony Shadid. I congratulate Mr. Martinez for the acclaim he’s receiving, and for his candor in exploring this personal terrain so movingly. I’m also happy for my publishing friends involved with such an exceptional book

#FridayReads, Nov. 9–“The Dogs of Riga,” Henning Mankell

November 9, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Nov. 9–“The Dogs of Riga,” a Kurt Wallander novel by Henning Mankell. I find myself getting totally absorbed by Mankell’s sympathetic characters, intriguing criminal puzzles, and compelling narrative style.

#FridayReads, Oct. 26, Kathleen Sharp’s ‘Blood Medicine’ & Richard Ford’s ‘The Sportswriter’

October 26, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Oct. 26, Kathleen Sharp‘s Blood Medicine: Blowing the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever, a riveting narrative that is a kind of Civil Action covering the corrupt world of prescription drug marketing and dangerous off-label uses of these often untested medicines. I edited and published Sharp’s 2003 book, Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and their Entertainment Empire, and am excited to see that her career’s continuing in really intriguing directions.

Also reading Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter, his 1986 novel that is the first book in his Frank Bascombe trilogy, followed by Independence Day (1996) and Lay of the Land (2006), As ever, as I discovered when I read his latest novel, Canada, Ford crafts gorgeous sentences and tells moving stories.