#FridayReads, April 26, “A Double Death on the Black Isle” by A.D. Scott

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10214614 I love Scotland and have visited near the region where this novel takes place, so I found it enjoyable. However, it should have had a better line edit and copyedit. There were plot threads hinted at that weren’t resolved and characters who ought to have had more development. Annoyingly, there were a lot of typos and proofing errors in this title, published by Atria, at Simon & Schuster. C’mon publishing colleagues, you can do better than this!

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Author Gilbert King, a Deserving Pulitzer Prize Winner, Takes it All in Stride

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Devil in the GroveGilbert King, whom I happen to know as a publishing acquaintance, got some welcome and unexpected news last week. His book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the general nonfiction category. King didn’t know that his publisher HarperCollins had submitted his book for consideration of the prize. A NY Times story published tonight profiles the unpretentious King, who was on a golf course in Florida when he got the news from a friend’s text: “Dude. Pulitzer.”

With refreshing modesty, King, whose book was published in March 2012, told the Times reporter William Grimes, “‘I’m sure people who write the big, critically acclaimed books know if they’re in the running. . . . But I’d just gotten a notice from my publisher that the book had been remaindered.’” The book tells a story of a too-little known incident of racial injustice, when in 1949 four black men were falsely accused of raping a white woman. The villain of the tale is the local sheriff in Groveland, Florida, Willis McCall, who King told Grimes compares unfavorably even with another notorious lawman: “’He made Bull Connor look like Barney Fife,’ the author said, “referring to the notorious commissioner of public safety in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights era. ‘Connor used dogs and fire hoses. McCall actually killed people,’” including one of the accused in this case.

King faced a daunting research challenge. While he did have the FBI case files to draw on, he also really needed to see records of the case housed at the NAACP, as Thurgood Marshall, then with the civil rights organization, had defended the accused. Though the organization had never shared such case files, even with eminent academics–because of attorney-client privilege–King persuaded them in this instance by insisting he was only interested in this one case, and none of their other historic cases. It sounds like a remarkable book, one with a terrible miscarriage of justice at the heart of the story that it seeks to redress, just the sort of book I have always enjoyed acquiring and championing as an editor for publishing houses.

I couldn’t be happier for Gilbert King, whose two books have “enjoyed only modest sales.” Grimes writes that King “is undecided what the next project might be. When the Pulitzer news came, ‘I was sort of lying low.’” I hope his next book, whatever he writes about, and whenever he publishes it, will gain recognition from the start. With the Pulitzer in his back pocket, it’s a good bet it will.

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A Favorite Film, “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” With One of the Movies’ Greatest Laughs

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CastI’ve seen “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” many times, yet couldn’t resist watching it again when TCM aired the 1948 film this past Sunday night. It’s a great movie based on the mysterious B. Traven’s 1935 novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Its scenes unfold inexorably like the movements of a symphony. Walter Huston (Howard), Bogart (Fred C. Dobbs) and the too-little seen Tim Holt (Curtin) form the amazing core of a powerful cast. Howard is the moral center of the movie, possessing shaman-like wisdom and healing powers. As played by Huston, he also displays one of the most prodigious laughs I’ve ever seen or heard in the movies. At the film’s climax, as it becomes clear that all their dreams of wealth have gone up in dust, he gives vent to a laugh that seems to mock all human vanity and grandiosity, at which point Curtin also sees the cosmic humor in their dashed dreams, and he joins Howard in laughing at the outcome of their quest for riches. I just love their expressions and so took pictures of my TV at that point, with the rest of those photos, and other relevant images, at the bottom of this post.

Walter’s son John Huston, years later seen on-screen as character Noah Cross in “Chinatown” wrote the screenplay of “Treasure” and directed the film, winning an Oscar for each of those, while Walter won the statue for Best Supporting Actor.

Two more great movies with Walter Huston in leading roles are “American Madness” (1932), directed by Frank Capra, where he plays a Depression-era bank president preventing a run on his bank. The film celebrates the welfare of ‘the little people,’ not dissimilar to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I also love “Gabriel Over the White House” (1933), directed by Gregory LaCava, who also worked with W.C. Fields, where Huston plays the president of the United States. At the outset, his President Hammond is unconcerned about the plight of the masses suffering in the Depression, and (in an evocation of the pleas of the real Bonus Army that FDR faced) he’s planning to crush the protests of the veterans massing outside the White House. However, after sustaining a providential blow to the head in a car accident, he turns over a new leaf and offers succor and hope to the desperate vets. Please click here to see all photos.

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#FridayReads, April 12–“The Barber’s Conundrum,” Essays by John Hartnett + Richard Nash, On the Business of Literature

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bc-goodreads-cover1#FridayReads, April 12–The Barber’s Conundrum–And Other Stories: Observations from Life in the Cheap Seats by John Hartnett. A while back, the author, whom I know a bit as a publishing industry contact, asked if I’d like to see a copy of his book of humorous essays, which he’d recently published himself. I like the genre of the humor essay, going back to E.B. White, Stephen Leacock, and in our era with writers like Roy Blount, Jr., and Nora Ephron, and so asked him to send me a copy. I had dipped in to the book a bit before this week, but only in the past few days have I made a point of making sure to read all 35 + pieces in the collection, and gain a sense of the whole. Now I realize how much I really like this charming book. The title piece, on the futility of trying to get a decent haircut, is full of wry observations and delicate exaggeration:

“I’m a barber’s worst nightmare because I’m not a crew cut guy. They enjoy giving crew cuts because all they need is a pair of clippers and a little conversation. There’s no finesse in crew cuts, no risks. Whenever I sink into the chair, they automatically reach for the clippers and when I tell them I just want a trim, they start looking at my head like it’ the Manhattan Project. It’s not uncommon to have three barbers looking at my head at the same time, like baseball managers standing around the pitcher’s mound deciding whether to try a little pep talk or send for the reliever. I’ve had barbers spontaneously retire while I sat in their chairs. One even tried to convince me that I’d be better off cutting it myself.”

Equally amusing are such pieces as “The Catalog: A Modern Fairy Tale,” about the insidious temptations of mail order shopping, and “Surviving Your First Trade Show,” on the rituals of being an exhibitor at a convention.

Hartnett’s been a gag writer, so he’s got the knack for inducing a chuckle, and nowadays also writes a humor blog, The Monkey Bellhop. I’ve found this an ideal book for the subway, where I can actually start a piece boarding a train, and finish it before reaching my destination. I recommend it if you’re looking for some painless laughs, something to lighten whatever load of worry might be a part of your day. While self-published, it’s nonetheless attracted 55 customer reviews on Amazon. I know of many commercially published books that don’t manage even half as many comments.

I’ve also read and will be mulling for days, Richard Nash’s deepthink essay on the future and purpose of publishing, “What is the Business of Literature? published in the Virginia Quarterly Review. Nash is with Small Demons, an innovator in mapping and indexing content from books in creative ways. I also recommend this essay highly, which carries the reading line, “As technology disrupts the business model of traditional publishers, the industry must imagine new ways of capturing the value of a book.” I was happy to be reminded of Nash’s piece–which first landed with a flurry a few weeks ago–by publishing thinker Brian O’Leary of Magellan Media, who wrote about it on his blog earlier this week. H/t Brian. Nash VQR

I didn’t plan ahead on sharing this medley of readings–but sort of like cooking a meal with an unlikely set of ingredients and discovering how well they work together–now that I’ve done so I’m intrigued to see there’s a kind of congruity about them. From a self-published book of essays that’s making its way in the emerging publishing ecosphere to an essay considering that ecosphere and even what makes a book, I think the combination suggests something more than just my reading taste. Not sure I can say yet that is, but it’s what I’ll be mulling this weekend.

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Peter Workman, Successful Independent Publisher, Gone at 74

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I knew Peter Workman, founder of Workman Publishing, who died last Sunday at age 74. I started ordering Workman titles from him and his sales reps in 1978, when I opened a bookstore. The past 5 years Peter and I were fellow members of the same monthly lunch club. He last attended one of our luncheons last November, after which he missed the next month and we learned he’d become ill. He never rejoined us. Peter’s company was one of the most successful independently owned publishers of our time.I’ve been tweeting and sharing about him since Sunday. Here’s a selection of my timeline since then.

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A Belated #FridayReads–for April 5

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I’ve had such a busy couple days that I neglected to post a #FridayReads this week as is my usual custom. Still, I’ve been reading some good things, so here’s a belated rundown on them.

“The Meaning of White,” a personal essay by Emily Urquhart on her young daughter’s albino condition published in the April issue of The Walrus magazine, an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir, Beyond the Pale.

Siege 13 by Tama Dobozy, an amazing collection of interlinked short stories revolving around Hungary, its history, and its far-flung tribe. I’d made this a #FridayReads back on February 22, and am still savoring the stories, such as “The Atlas of B. Gorbe,” about a legendary childrens’ book illustrator living in NYC, and a sulking narrator who tries to befriend him. After posting about it in February, I heard from my friend, designer Michel Vrana, that he’d designed the evocative jacket, which I’m glad to show again here. siege13-web

Also reading a couple of promising manuscripts submitted to me for consideration from possible author clients–a novel for middle grade students with a funny, gross-out plot, and a novel by a South Asian writer.

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