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Weird Facts About Best-Selling Authors

Dan Brown, pop musician? And more.

(Newser) - Summer's here, and that means it's time for beach reading. Mental Floss compiles some surprising facts about the authors most commonly toted along to the shore:
  1. Dan Brown hasn’t spent his whole life pondering Vatican conspiracies: he was also a musician and pop singer. The name of his second
... More »

Authors Want Boom Lowered on Book Pirates

Book piracy balloons with growth of e-readers

(Newser) - A surge in book piracy has followed hot on the heels of the growth in ebooks, the New York Times reports. Publishers trying to stamp out unauthorized editions online say the ease with which books can now be copied online make their efforts little more than a game of "... More »

Calm Down, Your Kids Are Perfectly Safe

Writer/mom says parents worry, hover way too much

(Newser) - With a constant barrage of news stories and TV shows highlighting child abductions and murders, it may seem like a supremely dangerous time to be a kid. But don't believe the media, says Lenore Skenazy, the author of Free-Range Kids. In an interview with Salon, she explains why children today... More »

'Cult' Writer JG Ballard Dead at 78

(Newser) - British author JG Ballard died this morning "with great sadness" after many years of poor health, his agent said today. The 78-year-old novelist and short story writer was most famous for his semi-autobiographical book Empire of the Sun, later made into a film by Steven Spielberg, and his controversial... More »

Meghan Gets 6-Figure Deal for Book

(Newser) - Meghan McCain has snagged a book deal thought to be in the high six figures, the New York Observer reports. The 24-year-old chose Hyperion over at least three other publishers. No official word on the subject, but a good bet is the future of the Republican party and how to... More »

Schindler's List Found in Aussie Library

List of saved Jews that inspired book was buried deep in box of author's papers

(Newser) - A rare copy of one of Oskar Schindler's original lists has been found in an Australian library, Reuters reports. The 13 yellowing pages list hundreds of Jews the German industrialist saved from the gas chambers by employing them in his factories. The list was given to Schindler's List author Thomas... More »

Two More Crichton Novels to Be Released

Late author left behind pirate yarn, and part of techno-thriller

(Newser) - Michael Crichton fans will have at least two posthumous releases to look forward to, the New York Times reports. The late author left behind a completed 17th-century adventure yarn called Pirate Latitudes that publisher HarperCollins plans to release this November, and the company is seeking an author to finish a... More »

García Márquez Finished With Writing: Agent

Giant of Latin American literature's oeuvre is complete

(Newser) - The world has probably already seen the complete work of Gabriel García Márquez, the Guardian reports. Friend and fellow author Plinion Apuleyo Mendoza said last year that the creator of magical realism was working on a new novel, but his agent recently quashed that rumor. "I don't... More »

In Life and Last Novel, Wallace Sought 'Adult Sanity'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace declared war on depression and addiction in writing his last, unfinished novel, D. T. Max writes in the New Yorker. The writer's suicide by hanging last year was the culmination of a struggle to live normally, to achieve what he called “adult sanity," without antidepressants... More »

New Yorker to Run Excerpt of Wallace's Last Book

In Pale King , deceased writer 'didn't want to do the old tricks'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace fans can get a glimpse of the deceased writer’s unfinished novel tomorrow, when the New Yorker publishes an excerpt from The Pale King, the Washington Post reports. Wallace, who killed himself last fall, had been working on the book for years. The magazine will also run... More »

Slate Scribe Gets in Syrian Street Brawl

Hitchens, two others jumped during junket

(Newser) - Three journalists—including columnist and author Christopher Hitchens—were jumped by thugs during a press junket in Beirut, reports Lawrence Osborne in a column for Forbes. Hitchens “rather gallantly insulted the swastika flag” of a “Syria-loving skinhead party called the SSNP” by scrawling an obscenity on it. He... More »

Grisham Shelves His Opposition to E-Books

Author nears deal to offer 22 bestsellers for Kindle, other readers

(Newser) - One of publishing's last major holdouts has decided it's time to kill his opposition to e-books, reports the Wall Street Journal. John Grisham is close to finalizing a deal that would make all of his 22 bestsellers—including new legal thriller The Associate—available for Amazon's Kindle reader and all... More »

Updike: An Author 'Hoping to Talk to America'

Superlatives hardly lacking in wake of writer's death at 76

(Newser) - John Updike, who died today at 76, was many things: Bob Ryan, in the Boston Globe, calls him the author of the “most spellbinding essay ever written about baseball.” For Carolyn Kellogg, in the Los Angeles Times, the first line of his story A&P displays a “... More »

Virginia Woolf Gets Silly in 'New' Play

Off-Broadway troupe revives author's one satirical work

(Newser) - A satirical play by Virginia Woolf received its professional premiere today in New York, NPR reports. Featuring figures like poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and painter George Frederic Watts, Freshwater lampoons "high-falutin', oldish, long-bearded Victorians," the play's producer said. Woolf wrote the hour-long farce as a fun project for... More »

Writers Hail Message From a 'Prince'

Inaugural address praised as masterful use of language

(Newser) - Barack Obama's inaugural address showed a literary mastery of language, assorted authors tell the Los Angeles Times. The president's plain speaking and restraint is commended, along with his use of "we" instead of "I." Author Ted Wilmer hails the president's use of "tight language, short sentences... More »

Vonnegut Protégé Will Share His Wisdom

Ex-lover plans volume of late writer's letters

(Newser) - Aspiring novelists, Kurt Vonnegut has some advice for you: “Write a play.” It’s easier. That, and other nuggets of wisdom, will be available for the first time when Vonnegut’s private correspondence with one of his students is published in April, the New York Post reports. Loree... More »

Final Chapter for Mystery Writer Westlake

Donald E. Westlake dies of heart attack

(Newser) - Prolific mystery writer Donald E. Westlake, who wrote hundreds of novels, stories and screenplays under his own name and a posse of pseudonyms, died from a heart attack on New Year's Eve while vacationing in Mexico. He was 75. One of his characters, downsized executive turned killer Burke Devore, stands... More »

Still Searching for JD Salinger

As the reclusive author turns 90, we're left to wonder who he was; will he publish again?

(Newser) - JD Salinger turns 90 tomorrow, but the milestone brings no new clarity to the life of the mysterious recluse, who has maintained four decades of closely-guarded silence. The New York Times does some close reading of the literary icon's work in a search for clues. The most critical questions: Has... More »

Meyer: the New JK Rowling

Vampire author gaining on Rowling's popularity

(Newser) - Have we finally found the next JK Rowling? Even Brits are starting to admit Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer is coming close, the Daily Telegraph reports. The 34-year-old Mormon author of a series of swoon-worthy novels about teen vampires has a similar “out of nowhere” story, and her book and... More »

Houghton Mifflin Stops Accepting Manuscripts

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt puts freeze on new books amid slowdown in sales

(Newser) - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books, Publishers Weekly reports. The publisher already has plenty of works in the pipeline and the freeze is only temporary, according to executives, who offered no indication when it might be lifted. Still, it unsettled literary agents, who say they've... More »

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