Hemingway on Deadline; 'Fifty Shades' Gets its First Banning
Today in books and publishing: Ernest Hemingway's Toronto Star columns are now available online, John Irving's new book debuts to tepid notices, and Fifty Shades of Grey is not welcome in Brevard County libraries.
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This is very neat: The Toronto Star has released a slew of articles Ernest Hemingway wrote for the paper from 1920-1924. Only 70 are available online now, but more are coming, so until then you'll have to be content reading columns with titles like "Canuck Whiskey Pouring into U.S." and "Newspapermen's Pockets," which we had never heard of before, but is absolutely essential late-morning read, especially if you're in the news business or have seen movies about people in the news business. [The Toronto Star]
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John Irving's new book In One Person -- like every John Irving book since A Window for One Year -- is receiving decidedly lukewarm reviews. The New York Daily News' Sherryl Connelly says the life story of a transgendered novelist (of course) from New England (also of course) is "more pleasing than powerful." Writing for The New Yorker, Thomas Mallon was less pleased. "[Irving's] stylistic virility," he writes, "has always depended on performance-enhancing devices [Ed: heyo!] that literary fiction tried to outlaw years ago -- big-hearted Dickensian contrivances -- and at seventy, he is wearing a rainbow flag on this latest trip over the top." [The New Yorker]
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Fifty Shades of Grey has been banned -- banned! -- from libraries in Florida's Brevard County. Library services director Cathy Schweinsber said the books "do not meet our selection criteria," which is fair. Then she said, "We don't collect porn" which seems unfair and outrage bait-y, since humans have been producing literature complete with sexual scenes for thousands of years. Many of them can be found in the Brevard County library. [The Palm Beach Post]
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We enjoy nothing more than big, fat memoir from aging rock-and-rollers, so we're delighted to learn that Grateful Dead guitarist Bill Kreutzmann has signed a deal with St. Martin's to publish a possibly hazy recollection of life on the road. There are no Dead Heads at The Atlantic Wire (that we know of at least) but the promise of stories about Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones has us excited. The book, which is currently untitled, is slated to be published in 2015. Terms weren't announced. [AP]
