Tag Archives: authors

Best Southern Novels Ever Written | Flavorwire

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The American South has long been seen as the focus of the country’s Civil Rights Movement, carrying with it the stigma of poverty, racism, and anti-intellectualism. Yet the region has also produced a disproportionate number of intellectuals, poets, and writers, possibly because of the complicated and layered identities each Southerner holds within him- or herself. The South has begotten some of our nation’s most important authors, including prize winners like William Styron, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Ralph Ellison, Harper Lee, and that titan of American letters, William Faulkner. These 50 novels are a reminder that the South cannot be defined solely by its failings; it is also responsible for shaping the minds of countless thinkers who offered to American literature essential insights about not only their region but the world at large.

REVIEW: Best Southern Novels Ever Written | Flavorwire.

Best Southern Novels Ever Written – Flavorwire

The real Jane Austen immortalised as waxwork | CNET

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Working from a single confirmed portrait of the Regency author, a forensic artist has created what she believes to be the most accurate representation of Jane Austen possible. READ: The real Jane Austen immortalised as waxwork | CNET

Awesomely Gross Medical Illustrations From the 19th Century | WIRED

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In the 19th century, doctors couldn’t use photographs to teach their students to distinguish between benign or cancerous growths. Or how teeth looked in patients affected by hereditary syphilis. Or the stages of cholera.

So the physicians, surgeons, and anatomists of the 1800s built close relationships with artists, craftsmen, and publishers to produce beautiful (yet horrifically off-putting at times) illustrations. In The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration, Richard Barnett collects up the best examples of these images. They—and the accompanying chapters of text, organized by disease—are endlessly fascinating.

 

Excerpted from The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration, by Richard Barnett, published this month by Distributed Art Publishers.

VIA: Awesomely Gross Medical Illustrations From the 19th Century | Science | WIRED.

F Scott Fitzgerald stories published uncensored for the first time | Books | The Guardian

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Sexual innuendo, drug references and antisemitic slurs removed by newspaper editors restored in new edition of Taps at Reveille.

Read more: F Scott Fitzgerald stories published uncensored for the first time | Books | The Guardian.

Mystery of 18th century music book| This Is Guernsey

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Historians are trying to trace the mysterious author of an 18th century music album that has been discovered in a library archive.

The untitled, leather-bound songbook was found by an archivist sorting through a catalogue of collections in the Watt Library in Greenock, Inverclyde.

The inside cover is signed by a Hugh Cameron and dated 1709 and it also contains poems, a book list and a series of religious writings.

The music, such as A Trumpet Air and Auld Robin Gray, were not written by Cameron but copied from a book of popular Scottish music. Cameron’s book has been described as an early example of a music album – a copy of music that can be performed by the owner at their leisure.

An expert from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has studied the unusual find and hopes to find out more about the person who wrote it.

Karen McAulay, music librarian at the Conservatoire, said: “A lot of the pieces in the manuscript have been copied out of one particular book.

“There was a publisher in Glasgow called Aird around that time and they published a series of books with fiddle tunes, mainly from Scotland but some from other countries as well, and when you go through this book you find that quite a lot of the tunes are from that one single volume (of the Aird book).

“These days you can quickly copy down with a photocopier or buy an album, but hundreds of years ago what you did was write your favourite tunes out and that’s exactly what this gentleman has done.”

The book is now going on display in the McLean Museum inside the library alongside other items from the archive, such as the Greenock Autograph Book which contains letters from Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.

Library archivist Neil Dickson discovered the songbook last month when he was preparing the new display for Inverclyde Council.

He said: “The only reason it was found was because I was cataloguing the records which had previously never been catalogued before. We discovered the songbook and straight away I realised it was something special.

“It’s very unique and I always feel privileged to be doing the job I am and to make discoveries like this, because it’s essentially history that’s been untouched and it’s our job to explore and make it available, and hopefully we can find out more about the book and Hugh Cameron.”

Little else is known about the author and the library hope local people will be interested in the story.

Ms McAulay has researched Mr Cameron but has been unable to pinpoint exactly where he was from.

She said: “My guess is that he was possibly a schoolmaster. I found out that there were several Hugh Camerons who were schoolmasters at that time, one in Perthshire, and it could have been him, but I can’t be sure.

“What I can say is that he wasn’t a Church of Scotland minister because he was not in the minister listings for that time.

“The book is dated 1709 and the handwriting of the signature is very young but the handwriting of the lists of books is more mature so that would have been when the same person was a bit older. It may be something he’s added to over his life or it may be that a relative or someone else also used the book.”

The display is part of a nationwide Explore Your Archive campaign which aims to get people interested in local history.

Mr Dickson said: “Archives are very important, it’s essentially raw history.

“They’re usually the only resources we have for getting a detailed description of people’s life and society from the 17th century onwards.

“By searching through our archives in Inverclyde we’ve found some very, very special items and hopefully they can give people an insight in to the history of the area.”

via Mystery of 18th century music book | This Is Guernsey.

8 Years Later, Google’s Book Scanning Crusade Ruled ‘Fair Use’ | Wired.com

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Eight years after a group of authors and publishers sued Google for scanning more than 20 million library books without the permission of rights holders, a federal judge has ruled that the web giant’s sweeping book project stayed within the bounds of U.S. copyright law.

On Thursday morning, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin dismissed a lawsuit from the Author Guild, ruling that Google’s book scans constituted fair use under the law. Though Google scanned those 20 million books in full and built a web service, Google Books, that lets anyone search the digital texts, users can only view “snippets” of a book if the right holder hasn’t given approval.

“In my view, Google Books provides significant public benefits,” the ruling reads. “It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders.”

In a statement sent to WIRED, a Google spokesperson said the company was “absolutely delighted” with the ruling. “As we have long said, Google Books is in compliance with copyright law and acts like a card catalog for the digital age giving users the ability to find books to buy or borrow.”

Michael Boni, a partner with Boni & Zack, the law firm representing the Authors Guild, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment. Nor did the Author’s Guild. But the Guild has told other news outlets it will appeal the decision.

“We disagree with and are disappointed by the court’s decision today. This case presents a fundamental challenge to copyright that merits review by a higher court,” reads a statement sent to GigaOm. “Google made unauthorized digital editions of nearly all of the world’s valuable copyright-protected literature and profits from displaying those works. In our view, such mass digitization and exploitation far exceeds the bounds of the fair use defense.”

The ruling comes two years after Judge Chin rejected a $125 million settlement between Google, the Author’s Guild, and the Association of American Publishers, which was also part of the original lawsuit against the web giant. After complaints over the settlement from outside organizations such as the Internet Archive and Google rivals such as Microsoft, Chin ruled the deal would give Google a de facto monopoly over so-called “orphan books,” scanned texts whose rights holders had not come forward to claim their share of the revenues Google would make from its book scanning endeavor.

A year after this ruling, the publishers agreed to another settlement with Google, and this one was not subject to approval from the court. But Chin allowed the case to continue as a class action, but an appeals court reversed this decision and told Chin to rule on the copyright issue.

Though Google limits how much book text you can view online — and though it doesn’t display ads on pages describing books it does not have rights to, the company, as the court explained, can still use its service to draw people to its websites and make money in other ways. But this commercial gain doesn’t necessarily mean copy infringement. Google Books, the judge ruled, doesn’t “negatively impact the market for books.”

On the contrary, Chin said, Google Books feeds the market for books. “A reasonable factfinder could only find that Google Books enhances the sales of books to the benefit of copyright holders,” the ruling reads. “Google Books provides a way for authors’ works to become noticed, much like traditional in-store book displays.”

via 8 Years Later, Google’s Book Scanning Crusade Ruled ‘Fair Use’ | Wired Business | Wired.com.

Book News Links

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Two Gaimen stories: Author Neil Gaiman to join Bard College faculty | The Wall Street Journal and Recurring Dream: Morpheus Returns In Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’ Prequel | NPR

What Do I Tell My Daughter About Ender’s Game? | HuffPost
A gay father’s perspective on Orson Scott Card’s homophobia, the book and the new film.

Amazon First Provides Early Access to New E-Books | PCMag
“Amazon [launches] Kindle First, a new program that offers customers access to books a month before their official launch — and serves as another tactic to encourage Prime memberships.”

A library of classics, edited for the teething set | Julie Bosman (The New York Times) | Manila Bulletin
“…[T]oday’s babies and toddlers are treated to board books that are miniature works of literary art: classics like “Romeo and Juliet,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Les Misérables;” luxuriously produced counting primers with complex graphic elements; and even an “Art for Baby” book featuring images by the contemporary artists Damien Hirst and Paul Morrison.”

Facebook Drives the Most Traffic to Publishers, Beating Twitter and Reddit | Mashable. See the original report from Sharaholic.

Source: Statista (http://www.statista.com/topics/1164/social-networks/chart/1549/social-traffic-sources/)

Jane Austen game is a proper MMORPG [Kickstarter Project] | CNET

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Forget swords and sorcery. Ever, Jane invites MMO players into the treacherous waters of England’s Regency Period.

Read: Jane Austen game is a proper MMORPG | Crave – CNET.

Now this is a Kickstarter project I can get behind!

Jane Austen MMORPG

 

Penguin Canada to release YA novel based on life of Lucy Maud Montgomery | Quill & Quire

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A newly announced YA novel, based on the life of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery, has the support of the beloved author’s family.

In a press release, Penguin Canada’s Lynne Missen, publishing director of the young readers’ group, says, “The idea for this book came up at a lunch with representatives of the heirs of L.M. Montgomery and we were all immediately smitten.”

Scheduled for release in 2015 under the Razorbill Canada imprint, the novel will be written by debut author Melanie J. Fishbane, who holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. The story will focus on Montgomery’s life from age 14 to 18, including her time as a student in Cavendish, PEI, to her year living with her her father and “difficult stepmother” in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

“My family is excited to be involved with another innovative literary project with Penguin Canada on the subject of my grandmother, L.M. Montgomery,” says Kate MacDonald-Butler. “Only a young adult novel could envision the dizzying romantic highs and the agonizing lows of finding one’s place in the world. We are looking forward to the creative talents of Melanie Fishbane in bringing the teenaged Maud to life for a new generation of readers.”

via Penguin Canada to release YA novel based on life of Lucy Maud Montgomery | Quill & Quire.

Russian volunteers put the complete works of Tolstoy online | MobyLives | Melville House

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Read the article: Russian volunteers put the complete works of Tolstoy online | MobyLives.

Quoteable: “This tremendous response is apposite for Tolstoy: not only of course is he one of the most beloved of the Russian greats, but he believed in the extraordinary possibilities of collective effort.”

Digitized books are available for download on the Tolstoy website. The website is in Russian for now, with an English version still under construction.