Rewriting Paul Revere

Sarah Palin changes history yet again.

Even down in little New Zealand, we know the story of the great silversmith who dropped his work to gallop through a bunch of towns and warn the rebels that the British were coming to raid their munitions.

On her recent visit to Boston, Sarah Palin has told a different yarn.  Paul Revere, she says, rang bells along the route to warn the British!

Lots of people have turned to their history books, and said, Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Others have turned to the Wikipedia page devoted to Paul Revere -- a quiet site, getting about 2,000 hits a day, on average -- and edited it to match what Sarah says.

It's gratifying for Wikipedia, as the hit rate has zoomed, but not so great for those who like history to be accurate.

It has also provided fodder for those who like to poke fun.  Witness a hilarious adaptation of Henry Wadworth Longfellow's famous poem, adjusted to suit world history the way Sarah sees it.  The poster (composer?) was Ben Grenman, and you can read it in The New Yorker.

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere -- it begins --
He who warned and, uh, the arms
And bells were rung out as alarms
To tell the British we were here,
And had our guns, and to beware ...

Children's author joins Kindle Million Club

Fifth and sixth members of the exclusive Amazon One Million Kindle Sales Club named

Lee Child and Suzanne Collins have joined other heavy-weights in the list of authors who have sold a million kindle editions of their books.

Television writer Suzanne Collins was named by TIME as one of the ten most influential people of 2010.

Her books for children (aged 12 and up) are dystopian fantasies, originally inspired by Alice in Wonderland.  What would it be like, she thought, if the rabbit hole was a manhole?  What kind of alternative world would her heroine find down there?

Her latest book, The Hunger Games, has been on the NYT bestseller list for 60 weeks.

Delighted by the news of his elevation to the million Kindle club, Lee Child, said, "I started writing at the same time Amazon first went live, back in 1995, and it has been a thrill to move forward together through the years."

At least one person would not have predicted it.  I gave my brother Child's first three Jack Reacher thrillers when people started talking about this new writer -- and he gave them back to me!  The pundits who predicted success for the eccentric hero were nuts, he opined.

Just shows how wrong one dedicated reader of thrillers can be.

Can you tell an author's sex?

The V.S. Naipaul quiz

In an intriguing comment on my post "Naipaul reckons female authors are inferior," Judith reveals that she took part in an intriguing quiz staged by The Guardian.

Well, intriguing comments are just that, intriguing, so I took part it in myself.

The quiz begins by reporting that V.S. Naipaul boasts he only needs to read a paragraph or two of a bit of writing to know whether it was penned by a woman or a man.

?

You are challenged to match your skills to his.

Then it gives quotes from ten unnamed authors, all famous, and you have to guess if they are male or female. 

The nagging familiarity of some of the paragraphs can be distracting.  For instance, I was convinced that one of the quotes was from the amazing Elizabeth Strout, and it turned out that it wasn't.  But hey, at least it was written by another woman. 

I did slightly better than Judith, scoring 5 out of 10, though I suppose I should subtract one because of the misidentification above.

I would like to see grumpy old V.S. Naipaul have a go!

NZ Guest status at Frankfurt Book Fair 2012 a Scoop

Worldwide exposure for New Zealand publishing at Frankfurt Book Fair 2012


A simple ceremony in Auckland last evening (June 2) had enormous significance for the future of New Zealand books and literature on the world stage.

Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Guido Westerwelle and New Zealand’s Chris Finlayson, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Culture both spoke at the formal signing of an agreement for New Zealand to become the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair to be held over five days in October 2012.

Dr Westerwelle, accompanied by a sizeable German media contingent, thought the event so important he attended it as part of his two day tour of New Zealand. He opened the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2010 and so is well aware of its importance in the publishing world as the premier international book fair, quoting attendance of 208,000 visitors and 10,000 journalists on that occasion.

“It is a unique chance for New Zealand,” Dr Westerwelle pointed out. “The year-long Guest of Honour program involves all of the guest country’s culture - theatre, dance, art, music and film - alongside books and literature.”

Chris Finlayson said that culture was ‘one of our best kept secrets’ and that he was determined to make the opportunity a great success.

Signing the agreement on behalf of the Frankfurt Book Fair was director Juergen Boos and for this country, chief executive of Ministry for Culture and Heritage Lewis Holden. Kevin Chapman represented the Publishers Association of New Zealand.

PANZ says the Guest of Honour opportunity receives a high profile at the Frankfurt Book Fair with a central open display space and the involvement of other art forms, plus a visiting writers program.

The Guest of Honour is also profiled at the 25 other international book fairs each year at which Frankfurt has a stand.

“The benefits to our publishing community, associated industries and the wider arts community are palpable, says Publishers Association of New Zealand president Adrian Keane.

“The Guest of Honour status will provide us with arguably the greatest platform the New Zealand publishing industry has ever had to showcase its creativity, innovation and outright quality.”

Juergen Boos cited world-class authors such as Katherine Mansfield, Michael King, Janet Frame, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff, as well as poet Hone Tuwhare, who was the first to translate Maori verse into English, and novelist Witi Ihimaera.

But he noted that only a few New Zealand writers were published in German including Alan Duff, Patricia Grace, Ngaio Marsh and Anthony McCarten -- a deficit that the exposure at the fair can help to change.

Naipaul reckons female authors inferior

Naipaul dismisses 'sentimental' women authors

Oh boy, this is really asking for trouble.

Nobel-winner V.S. Naipaul declared Thursday that he does not regard any female authors as his equal, not even the fabulous Jane Austen.  Too 'sentimental,' says he.

They are also not the 'complete master of the house.' (Well, that wins the prize for the enigmatic statement of the week.)  They have too narrow a view of the world, to boot.

Maybe it's his age.  He's seventy-eight, well into grumpy old man territory.

Even his publisher, Diana Athill, became the brunt of his attack.  She was a great editor, he reckoned, but 'when she became a writer, lo and behold it was all this feminine tosh. 

'I don't mean this in any unkind way,' he added.

What other way can it be taken, pray?

He's 'losing his grip,' said Diana Athill.

I agree.

NYT appoints first female editor

Ruth Fremson photo

The New York Times appoints woman editor ­ after 160 years

Gender equality addressed at last. Jill Abramson takes over from Bill Keller as editor.

Ed Pilkington reports from New York that the paradoxically nicknamed Gray Lady has finally appointed its first female editor.
Jill Abramson will inherit the post of executive editor of the paper on 6 September, taking the helm of one of the world's most influential and widely read newspapers, at a time of turmoil and uncertainty.

A whole bevy of women's magazine editors has hailed this as a triumph for women. 

Maybe so, but I've become sadly accustomed to seeing women shoulder the responsibility in difficult business situations -- and executive editor of the NYT ranks up there among the hardest jobs around.

Keller, who is stepping down after eight years, found the job fraught with difficulties. No sooner had he taken over the office  in 2003, than scandal broke -- the Jayson Blair affair, in which a reporter was found to have been fabricating stories, resorting to plagiarism when imagination failed. The fact that Blair (who is now a "life coach" in Virginia) is Black made the problem even harder, posing questions about hiring practices and affirmative action at the newspaper.

And then there was the unhappiness of the Bush administration with the NYT's reporting of torture...

And then came WikiLeaks...

And digital publishing.

Abramson immediately faces the challenges posed by the digital age.  Who knows what else is in the offing?

What must haunt her now is that if she fails, she will be failing not just as an executive, but as a woman, too. That a woman has been appointed might be hailed now as a huge step forward, but what if she is perceived as letting womanhood down?  Being woman in what had been an exclusively man's job is not just a challenge, but also an added burden.

The best of good luck to her, I say.

NEW ZEALAND HONORED GUEST AT FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

Our fair Kiwi country to be grandly hosted at 2012 Frankfurt book fair

New Zealand will be the guest of honor at the world's biggest book fair in 2012.

Frankfurt Book Fare director, Juergen Boos, visiting Auckland, said that Frankfurt will be putting New Zealand in the full glare of the spotlights during the full extent of the fair, October 10-14, 2012.

"The multicultural identity of New Zealand is based on sweeping stories," he said, "whether conveyed orally, written, sung or filmed."

He cited world-class New Zealand authors Katherine Mansfield, Michael King, Janet Frame, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff, as well as poet Hone Tuwhare.

However, he also noted that relatively few New Zealand writers were published in German, a lack that exposure at the Fair could remedy.

Last 9 Borders bookstores in Australia to close

The remaining Aussie Borders stores to close, 315 jobs lost

The administrator for REDgroup said today that no buyer could be found for the last 9 stores.

A total of 315 staff will be looking for jobs (making a joke of the few remaining Borders/Whitcoulls staff in New Zealand who are reluctant to sign employment agreements, apparently not appreciating their luck, after the rescue of the ailing chain by the innovative James Pascoe Group).

Last April, the closure of 16 Australian Borders stores put 300 fulltime staff and 210 casuals out of work.

Whatever entitlements the workers might have depend on how much will be made from the sale of remaining stock.

Aussie self-publishing success wins US award

Stephanie Dale's self-published books a huge success story

An award-winning journalist, Stephanie Dale sold everything she owned to have the time and resources to write what she wanted.

That was seven years ago. In 2005, she walked El Camino, the mystical road to Santiago de Compostela, and in 2007 she joined her son for part of his walk from Canterbury to Jerusalem.

Her self-published memoir of the 2007 walk, My Pilgrim's Heart: A Woman's journey through marriage and other foreign lands, was a huge success, selling out its first print run within four weeks.

Her second book, Hymn for a Wounded Man, was based on hunting experiences in New Zealand. It has won her a gold medal at the Independent Publisher Book awards in the US.

Stephanie is currently on her way to New York to collect her prize.

Anniversary of Hemingway suicide goes unremarked

Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park chooses not to memorialize ghoulish anniversary

Occasionally I sift through lists of "what happened on this date in history" for wordsmiths, and manage to produce a post.  For some odd reason, that kind of post is very popular.

What has annoyed me, however, is that invariably the date connected with some famous author is his or her death date.  Why not something a lot more cheerful, such as his birth date, or the date his most famous work was launched, or lauded with a notable prize?

Accordingly, I said, hear, hear, when I read that the Ernest Hemingway Foundation has chosen to ignore the fiftieth anniversary of the great author's suicide.

As a former chairman. Allan Baldwin, remarked, "We don't consider that a particularly big event for any number of reasons. We really don't get into those types of things."

After all, there are other reasons to remember a man who lived a remarkably full life, who won a Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer, who reported five wars, and experienced many adventures.

The Foundation chooses to honor him on his birthday, July 21.

Again, hear, hear.