Yesterday an interesting e-mail arrived in my inbox, reminding me of recent news releases about the discovery of a really, really old European woman's skull in the Wairarapa.
Originally, the skull had been rated 250 years old, suggesting that she had died about 1750. There was a lack of leeway in the dating, apparently, because those who lived on a sea-based diet aged more quickly than those who lived on land. Therefore, the date the unknown woman died could be extended to as late as 1800.
"Could I confirm it was possible that a European woman arrived in New Zealand on a whaleship in the late 1700s?"
Putting on my hat as a whaling historian, I had to say, regretfully, no. The earliest whaleship to drop anchor in the Bay of Islands (a long way from where the skull was found) arrived in 1805.
So how about another possibility? That she was one of the first two white women known to settle in New Zealand?
I certainly know that story, because I have published several versions of it, and described it for television, too. Two women convicts helped seize the brig Venus from Captain Samuel Rodman Chace, while being carried from the penal settlement of Sydney to the penal settlement of Hobart, and sailed with the brig to the Bay of Islands, where they were left behind with two male convicts, John William Lancashire, and Benjamin Barnet Kelly. One of these women was Charlotte Badger, who was described as having "a full face, thick lips, and light hair," while the other, Catherine Hagerty, was blonde, nubule, husky-voiced, "fresh complexion, much inclined to smile." Lancashire, Badger's swain, was a little, wizened fellow who had been a painter. Kelly, an American, was "about 5 feet 7 inches, pock-marked, thin visage, brown hair, auburn whiskers," and had been the first mate of the vessel.
A romantic story -- or maybe not. Lancashire and Kelly were both recaptured, and sent to London to be hanged. Catherine Hagerty died soon after the quartet landed at the Bay of Islands. Charlotte Badger, now described as "Australia's first female pirate" (though it was really Hagerty who incited the seizure of the brig), vanished from public record. However, there were rumors. Gossip reached Sydney that she was living with a minor Maori chief. Another tale was that an American whaling captain found her on the island of Vavau and took her on board.
It would seem remotely possible that another tale could be told, of her being taken to the Wairarapa, where she died and disappeared -- until her skull was found. So -- could this skull be Charlotte Badger's?
Not possible, I'm afraid. The brig Venus was seized in 1806, and Badger died some years after that, well outside the range of the carbon dating.
So, whose skull is it?
I said, Go back to the eighteenth century discoverers -- or maybe even earlier.
Not only is it an intriguing mystery, it's a great story, too. So it is little wonder that it has reached the shores of Britain.
Paul Chapman, in Wellington, reports today in the Telegraph (UK), "The discovery of a European skull dating back more than 260 years has cast doubt that Captain James Cook [who arrived here first in 1769] was the first Westerner to step foot on the shores of New Zealand."
The skull was found four years ago, by a boy walking his dog. At first the police thought they had a murder inquiry on their hands. Then they realized the age of the skull.
Dr Robin Watt, a forensic anthropologist called in by police who investigated the discovery, said yesterday: "It's a real mystery, it really is. We've got the problem of how did this woman get here? Who was she? I recommended they do carbon date on it and, of course, they came up with that amazing result."
An inquest was held last week in Masterton (provincial capital of the Wairarapa, and, coincidentally, the town where I will be helping out with a Books 'n Bubbles event on Friday -- will we be talking about books?). The coroner heard that the skull was definitely not Maori - the only race known to have inhabited New Zealand in the 18th century - and was almost certainly of European origin.
Abel Tasman sailed about parts of New Zealand in 1642, but had no women on board his ships -- or so the records say. Gareth Winter, the official Masterton archivist who was called as an expert witness, told The Daily Telegraph that the possibility of a hoax could confidently be ruled out.
Mr Winter said that Captain Cook recorded, in the log of his second journey to New Zealand aboard the Resolution in 1772-5, a tale told to him by a Maori chief of a ship having been shipwrecked many years earlier. Cook said the Maori told him that they given the ship's captain the name"Rongotute".
Early missionaries wrote of hearing the same story from Maori, who related that the survivors of the ship had been killed and eaten when they came ashore.They said that many Maori had subsequently died in an epidemic, possibly as a result of exposure to a newly introduced infection from Europe.
Not much to do with books . . . but there is a novel in it!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4643203a11.html
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
What is it about Salem, right now?
Last week, all the buzz was about the breakaway self-published novel set in Salem, The Lace Reader (scan down). Now, the chat is about Kathleen Kent's debut novel, The Heretic's Daughter. Unlike Lace Reader, Heretic's Daughter is set in the past -- in the time of the infamous witch trials, naturally. In tune with the latest publicity fashion, Kent is shooting a trailer for her novel there. Why the sudden focus on stories coming out of this historic but quiet town? One of the more bizarre theories is that it has something to do with general disquiet about stories coming out of Guatanamo Bay.
http://www.mediabistro.com:80/galleycat/authors/whats_behind_the_salem_witch_story_miniboom_90869.asp
Does kindle spell the end of the book as we know it?
In this morning's Washington Post Richard Cohen has a passionate diatribe about amazon and the promotion of the kindle electronic reader.
He loves to amble over to his neighborhood bookstore, wherever he might be, he says -- not just to buy, but to browse, drink coffee, talk, and simply absorb the atmosphere of books.
"The book is warm. The book is handy. The book is handsome to the eye," he poetically muses. "The book occupies the shelf of the owner and is a reflection of him or her, or, actually, me. The book is always there, to be reached for, to be thumbed ..."
Can amazon do anything like that? The kindle, let's face it, is just a gadget, yet one that is dearly loved by the guru techs at amazon. Steven Kessel, one of those gurus, confided that Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, is dead set on "reinventing the book." He and Kessel "wake up every day thinking about digital."
Predictably, this makes Cohen very unhappy. He likes actual bookstores, places where people who love books can recommend great writing to other people who love books. It was this process that introduced Cohen to Joseph Roth and Thomas Bernhard, and a book about World War One called Her Privates We. Amazon does not do this.
Richard Cohen does not offer a solution to this headlong rush away from the real book, except, perhaps, an unspoken plea to read more books with real pages and real covers. Well, as far as I am concerned, he can put one notch in his gun -- I can't wait to go to a real library and find that book he raved about, Her Privates We.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401823.html?wpisrc=newsletter
He loves to amble over to his neighborhood bookstore, wherever he might be, he says -- not just to buy, but to browse, drink coffee, talk, and simply absorb the atmosphere of books.
"The book is warm. The book is handy. The book is handsome to the eye," he poetically muses. "The book occupies the shelf of the owner and is a reflection of him or her, or, actually, me. The book is always there, to be reached for, to be thumbed ..."
Can amazon do anything like that? The kindle, let's face it, is just a gadget, yet one that is dearly loved by the guru techs at amazon. Steven Kessel, one of those gurus, confided that Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, is dead set on "reinventing the book." He and Kessel "wake up every day thinking about digital."
Predictably, this makes Cohen very unhappy. He likes actual bookstores, places where people who love books can recommend great writing to other people who love books. It was this process that introduced Cohen to Joseph Roth and Thomas Bernhard, and a book about World War One called Her Privates We. Amazon does not do this.
Richard Cohen does not offer a solution to this headlong rush away from the real book, except, perhaps, an unspoken plea to read more books with real pages and real covers. Well, as far as I am concerned, he can put one notch in his gun -- I can't wait to go to a real library and find that book he raved about, Her Privates We.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401823.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The literary scene in New Zealand
Carter Jefferson, of Internet Review of Books, got in touch with me with the following questions:
What is the literary life like in New Zealand?
What are people reading?
Who sells books?
Do you read the British newspapers, or only the local ones?
Are there lots of writers?
Any local publishers?
What are the local industries?
Are there universities?
Feeling somewhat inadequate to the task of answering all of these, I approached a few local book reviewers, literary luminaries, and writers for their reactions.
Lydia Wevers, who featured prominently in the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week, which is run in conjunction with the biannual International Arts Festival in Wellington, said that audiences of 500-1000 at many of the events is a testament to the fact that there is huge interest in literature here. After participating in the Going West Book Festival last year, and the Auckland Writer's and Reader's Festival this year, I can emphatically affirm that this is right. Biographer and theater historian Sarah Gaitanos pointed out that there are lots of book clubs, and that reading is considered a top leisure activity. Another remark gleaned from discussions is that New Zealanders are supposed to be the second-biggest buyers of books in the world (next to Iceland).
A recommendation from Barbara Else is that the websites of the New Zealand Book Council and New Zealand Book Month (http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/ and www.nzbookmonth.co.nz) are worth a good look. The Book Council lists most New Zealand writers, which -- believe me -- add up to an impressive number.
It's harder to tell what people are reading. The book club I belong to chooses novels mostly, alternating between New Zealand authors and cutting-edge fiction from overseas. A bookseller told me that she sells mostly New Zealand nonfiction, particularly books about the outdoors, though anything with Maori interest sells well. New Zealand fiction writers, she says, have a hard job competing against the "big" titles brought out by distributors, which are accompanied by a great deal of publicity.
Newspaper reading is even more difficult to define. Most people I know read the New York Times online, and quite a number read the Guardian online, too. And one must not forget some fine Australian newspapers, such as the Sydney Morning Herald and The [Melbourne] Age.
Local publishers, both large and small, are numerous. Moa Beckett, which specializes in sport and outdoor books, had such an attractive balance sheet that it was bought up by Hachette not so long ago. Learning Media, which produces books for schools, finds a big market in the United States. HarperCollins, Random House, and Penguin are energetic and prominent publishers of local books as well as distributors of international ones. University presses (yes, we do have universities) such as Auckland University Press and Victoria University Press produce a large number of books with incredible speed, and feature prominently in prize-winning lists. At the other end of the scale is a favorite of mine, the tiny Wai-te-ata Press, also at Victoria University of Wellington, which produces very short runs of lovingly designed small books of poetry on antique presses.
There are four major bookstore chains: Whitcoulls, Borders, Dymocks, and PaperPlus. Administratively, this will be reduced to three when Whitcoulls takes over the Borders stores, but they may operate under the old name. PaperPlus is interesting in that each store is independently owned.
Independent bookstores have a very strong voice in the industry, with one of the greatest, Unity Books, running a store right here in Wellington. Another favorite of mine is Parson's bookstore, which sells classical music CDs and DVDs as well.
What is the literary life like in New Zealand?
What are people reading?
Who sells books?
Do you read the British newspapers, or only the local ones?
Are there lots of writers?
Any local publishers?
What are the local industries?
Are there universities?
Feeling somewhat inadequate to the task of answering all of these, I approached a few local book reviewers, literary luminaries, and writers for their reactions.
Lydia Wevers, who featured prominently in the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week, which is run in conjunction with the biannual International Arts Festival in Wellington, said that audiences of 500-1000 at many of the events is a testament to the fact that there is huge interest in literature here. After participating in the Going West Book Festival last year, and the Auckland Writer's and Reader's Festival this year, I can emphatically affirm that this is right. Biographer and theater historian Sarah Gaitanos pointed out that there are lots of book clubs, and that reading is considered a top leisure activity. Another remark gleaned from discussions is that New Zealanders are supposed to be the second-biggest buyers of books in the world (next to Iceland).
A recommendation from Barbara Else is that the websites of the New Zealand Book Council and New Zealand Book Month (http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/ and www.nzbookmonth.co.nz) are worth a good look. The Book Council lists most New Zealand writers, which -- believe me -- add up to an impressive number.
It's harder to tell what people are reading. The book club I belong to chooses novels mostly, alternating between New Zealand authors and cutting-edge fiction from overseas. A bookseller told me that she sells mostly New Zealand nonfiction, particularly books about the outdoors, though anything with Maori interest sells well. New Zealand fiction writers, she says, have a hard job competing against the "big" titles brought out by distributors, which are accompanied by a great deal of publicity.
Newspaper reading is even more difficult to define. Most people I know read the New York Times online, and quite a number read the Guardian online, too. And one must not forget some fine Australian newspapers, such as the Sydney Morning Herald and The [Melbourne] Age.
Local publishers, both large and small, are numerous. Moa Beckett, which specializes in sport and outdoor books, had such an attractive balance sheet that it was bought up by Hachette not so long ago. Learning Media, which produces books for schools, finds a big market in the United States. HarperCollins, Random House, and Penguin are energetic and prominent publishers of local books as well as distributors of international ones. University presses (yes, we do have universities) such as Auckland University Press and Victoria University Press produce a large number of books with incredible speed, and feature prominently in prize-winning lists. At the other end of the scale is a favorite of mine, the tiny Wai-te-ata Press, also at Victoria University of Wellington, which produces very short runs of lovingly designed small books of poetry on antique presses.
There are four major bookstore chains: Whitcoulls, Borders, Dymocks, and PaperPlus. Administratively, this will be reduced to three when Whitcoulls takes over the Borders stores, but they may operate under the old name. PaperPlus is interesting in that each store is independently owned.
Independent bookstores have a very strong voice in the industry, with one of the greatest, Unity Books, running a store right here in Wellington. Another favorite of mine is Parson's bookstore, which sells classical music CDs and DVDs as well.
Warrior Queen closer still to filming
Barbara Else, whose hilarious first novel, Warrior Queen, the story of a wronged wife's complicated wreaking of revenge on her philandering husband, reaped rave reviews, tells me that the third (and final) draft of the screen play is almost finished.
The story of the screen play is almost a novel in itself. Back in 1998 Else was contacted by producer Maggie Taylor, who adored the book and thought it would make a great film. Over the next few years Taylor somehow found the money to keep the option up to date, while she talked the author into writing the screen play herself. And why not? Barbara Else is a playwright in her own right (pun intended).
Finally, Else agreed, and now says she is enjoying it immensely, contrary to expectations.
For a while, a few weeks back, she realized it was getting close to completion, and that she shouldn't do any more until she'd heard it aloud, with the variety of voices, to check what the pace was like. Was the dialogue convincing, were the characters lively and consistent?
So she asked a collection of friends to her house for an amateur, unrehearsed reading. The cast was: 4 writers, one geological scientist, 2 opera singers, one ex-All Black and one nephew. She said her own reactions, plus comments from the interested "actors," inspired some rewriting, which has gone so well she is delighted with her experiment.
So she asked a collection of friends to her house for an amateur, unrehearsed reading. The cast was: 4 writers, one geological scientist, 2 opera singers, one ex-All Black and one nephew. She said her own reactions, plus comments from the interested "actors," inspired some rewriting, which has gone so well she is delighted with her experiment.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Amazon.com to Buy AbeBooks
Will we see rare and ancient volumes on kindle?
Amazon can lay an ever-bigger claim to being the largest independent bookseller in the world, with today's news that the "etailer" has agreed to acquire AbeBooks. AbeBooks, a major player in the online marketplace, says it offers "over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world."
amazon.com is already promoting used-book traders by posting links to their sites, which is very irritating for authors who check the amazon page of the latest book, to see the prices of used copies of the same book advertised -- sometimes before the book is out! -- with an invitation to the customer to compare prices, and then hit the link to the used book firm. Not only are no royalties paid on secondhand books, but the publisher gets no money from subsequent sales, either. Let's face it, the practice is detrimental to the economics of publishing, which means that amazon is biting the hand that feeds it.
Obviously, however, commissions paid by booksellers who have bought into the program have proved profitable enough to make the deal attractive to the bean-counters there.
Amazon can lay an ever-bigger claim to being the largest independent bookseller in the world, with today's news that the "etailer" has agreed to acquire AbeBooks. AbeBooks, a major player in the online marketplace, says it offers "over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world."
amazon.com is already promoting used-book traders by posting links to their sites, which is very irritating for authors who check the amazon page of the latest book, to see the prices of used copies of the same book advertised -- sometimes before the book is out! -- with an invitation to the customer to compare prices, and then hit the link to the used book firm. Not only are no royalties paid on secondhand books, but the publisher gets no money from subsequent sales, either. Let's face it, the practice is detrimental to the economics of publishing, which means that amazon is biting the hand that feeds it.
Obviously, however, commissions paid by booksellers who have bought into the program have proved profitable enough to make the deal attractive to the bean-counters there.
Is reading the new macho sport?
Organizers of the New Zealand Book Month are offering free beer to entice real blokes into reading real books.
To promote reading as a "manly" activity, they have invited fathers and sons to an evening of male bonding over literature.
When they arrive at the Auckland Town Hall, guests will be offered free beer.
Interested? The evening, called "A Word in his Ear," will be held on Friday September 5.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10524694&ref=emailfriend
To promote reading as a "manly" activity, they have invited fathers and sons to an evening of male bonding over literature.
When they arrive at the Auckland Town Hall, guests will be offered free beer.
Interested? The evening, called "A Word in his Ear," will be held on Friday September 5.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10524694&ref=emailfriend
Friday, August 1, 2008
Can book blogs replace literary reviews?
Lissa Warren of the Huffington Post thinks most emphatically not. "I'll tell you what does make my jaw drop: the seemingly widely-held notion that [disappearing] book sections are being adequately replaced by blogs," she roundly declares.
Book blogs might be good for stories on publishing trends, "which as a book publicist and editor I appreciate a great deal," she goes on. "But, for the most part, these blogs don't actually review books. Instead, they cover the business of books, book culture, and the world of the author."
So, should book bloggers make a real effort to post more reviews?
"I realize the intrinsic irony," Ms. Warren concedes. "If people spent less time reading (and writing) blogs, they'd have more time to read books. So, yes, it feels a little funny to be asking bloggers to review more books -- and to take more care when doing so. But I can't ignore the power of blogs to stoke the public interest, any more than I can ignore the fact that the traditional book review outlets are drying up and no one has yet determined how to save them. No, I don't believe blogs will save books -- not in their current format. But I can envision a day when blogs do for books what books have done for people: challenged us, made us think in ways we never would have.
"I'll open it up to the floor now," Ms. Warren concludes. "What book blogs do you read, do they review and, if so, are the reviews as good as the ones in your daily paper?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lissa-warren/will-blogs-save-books_b_115465.html
Book blogs might be good for stories on publishing trends, "which as a book publicist and editor I appreciate a great deal," she goes on. "But, for the most part, these blogs don't actually review books. Instead, they cover the business of books, book culture, and the world of the author."
So, should book bloggers make a real effort to post more reviews?
"I realize the intrinsic irony," Ms. Warren concedes. "If people spent less time reading (and writing) blogs, they'd have more time to read books. So, yes, it feels a little funny to be asking bloggers to review more books -- and to take more care when doing so. But I can't ignore the power of blogs to stoke the public interest, any more than I can ignore the fact that the traditional book review outlets are drying up and no one has yet determined how to save them. No, I don't believe blogs will save books -- not in their current format. But I can envision a day when blogs do for books what books have done for people: challenged us, made us think in ways we never would have.
"I'll open it up to the floor now," Ms. Warren concludes. "What book blogs do you read, do they review and, if so, are the reviews as good as the ones in your daily paper?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lissa-warren/will-blogs-save-books_b_115465.html
Another offering from J K Rowling
In an hour of whimsy, the mega-bestselling children's chapter-book writer picked up a pen and wrote The Tales of Beedle the Bard by hand. One hundred and fifty-seven pages long, and illustrated by the author, it is made up of five fairy stories, and is supposed to be a book mentioned in Deathly Hallows. J K Rowling made seven copies, one embellished with semi-precious stones and bound in morocco, which was bought at auction late last year by amazon.com, for $4 million. And that was supposed to be that.
Now, J K Rowling has relented, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard will be issued in a trade edition on December 4, with the addition of "notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive."
Amazon will produce up to 100,000 facsimile "collector's editions" of the handwritten book (at $100/50 pounds each) and Scholastic and Bloomsbury will print and distribute trade editions. The beneficiary will be the Children's High Level Group, a charity co-founded by Rowling to help children suffering in institutions all over Europe. (CHLG is technically the publisher.)
According to the press release, the charitable group will receive all "net proceeds," estimated to be about $8 million, but in a quote from Rowling, she says the charity will receive the "royalties." (Note that Amazon's edition alone would gross $10 million....).
Rowling says in the announcement: "There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December. I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon (who bought the handwritten copy at auction) - and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans."
Now, J K Rowling has relented, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard will be issued in a trade edition on December 4, with the addition of "notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive."
Amazon will produce up to 100,000 facsimile "collector's editions" of the handwritten book (at $100/50 pounds each) and Scholastic and Bloomsbury will print and distribute trade editions. The beneficiary will be the Children's High Level Group, a charity co-founded by Rowling to help children suffering in institutions all over Europe. (CHLG is technically the publisher.)
According to the press release, the charitable group will receive all "net proceeds," estimated to be about $8 million, but in a quote from Rowling, she says the charity will receive the "royalties." (Note that Amazon's edition alone would gross $10 million....).
Rowling says in the announcement: "There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December. I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon (who bought the handwritten copy at auction) - and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans."
Are bestsellers not as bestselling as they used to be?
Sales at Simon & Schuster for the second quarter are reported at $186 million, down 7 percent from a year ago. It's the third straight quarterly decline for the publishing unit and once again the statement says that "bestselling titles...did not match contributions from prior year titles."
This is quite a statement from a publisher that led the world in giving huge advances to authors who were reckoned to be guaranteed bestsellers (think Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark) -- a ploy which many said was to the detriment of midlist authors.
By contrast, sales at romance specialist Harlequin are up 3.5% to $119 million.
One is tempted to grin and ask if this says something about the midlist reader.
This is quite a statement from a publisher that led the world in giving huge advances to authors who were reckoned to be guaranteed bestsellers (think Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark) -- a ploy which many said was to the detriment of midlist authors.
By contrast, sales at romance specialist Harlequin are up 3.5% to $119 million.
One is tempted to grin and ask if this says something about the midlist reader.
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