Denise Oswald, former editorial director for indie publisher Soft Skull Press, has landed a new job as a senior editor at HarperCollins imprint It Books. The Observer broke the news that Soft Skull would close its two-person New York office late last year, leaving its operations in the hands of the Berkeley-based publisher Counterpoint, which acquired Soft Skull in... MORE >
Michael Showalter's middle name is English, which is also, uncannily, the language in which he chose to write his first book, Mr. Funny Pants, released last week. It is also the language he speaks most fluently, which just goes to show how much a name can influence a... MORE >
Anjelica Huston--the only Hollywood heiress we know of to win an Oscar and get implicated in Roman Polanski's trial--is set to write a memoir for Scribner, for publication in 2013. Big names bedeck the project, which Nan Graham, Scribner editor-in-chief, will edit and acquired from Bill Clegg.... MORE >
London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers is looking for a new employee. The ideal hire, if an American, "would have to say all the right things about the publication-and have a knowledge of history, as we're a bit lacking at the... MORE >
Kenneth Slawenski has granted few interviews and doesn't care to do any more. Yet he has been swept from suburban obscurity in recent weeks by the widespread praise of his new biography, J.D. Salinger: A Life. There was a coveted cover notice in The New York Times Book Review, and three days prior Michiko Kakutani pronounced it "earnest, sympathetic and perceptive." When The Observer contacted Mr. Slawenski over email, he told us to arrange a... MORE >
All that's missing is a Maya Rudolph novel! The women of Saturday Night Live's early-2000s renaissance are following in Tina Fey's footsteps by writing books.... MORE >
"You asked me to write you a letter about my proposed book on nomads," Bruce Chatwin wrote an interested publisher in 1969. He was 28 years old, and it would be eight years before his remarkable books, beginning with In Patagonia, would start to appear. "The question I will try to answer is, 'Why do men wander rather than sit... MORE >
ArtsBeat announced today that this week's New York Times Book Review will feature, for the first time, bestseller lists accounting for the sales of e-books.... MORE >
New York magazine contributing editor Gabriel Sherman (and Observer alum!) sold an inside account of the rise of Fox News called The Loudest Voice in the Room at auction to Jonathan Jao at Random House. Here's some memorable work by Sherman on the topic. This should be good! kstoeffel@observer.com ::... MORE >
Neurasthenia was the fashionable sickness of late 19th-century America. (Big Pharma, not yet so big, had yet to discover ADHD.) The disease--symptoms included fatigue, flatulence and headache--was thought to be a byproduct of "modern civilization": the stresses involved in urban living and getting ahead. For the upwardly mobile, neurasthenia was "a marker of class." William James, who suffered the condition, dubbed it Americanitis, the American Disease. Freud thought it was caused by excessive... MORE >
In 1987, Deb Olin Unferth followed her boyfriend to war. She was 18, and she was in love with an eccentric college senior she was sure was a genius. "The women in my family fell in love with geniuses, was how I understood it," Ms. Unferth writes in her memoir, Revolution, and George--"spectacular, misunderstood, brilliant" George--was her... MORE >
Mainstream science says that monkeys can't learn language. The discredited field of primate language acquisition says that maybe they can, and here are some experiments to prove it. In one, Koko the gorilla used sign language to participate in a Q&A on AOL chat (AOL: "What does she eat for dinner?" Koko: "Candy hurry ... candy"). And the chimp Kanzi is today communicating by "lexigram board" with his owner, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, who is known... MORE >
Avid readers rarely question their job requirements. The endeavor of entering and acquainting oneself with a fictional world seldom seems odd. Not only is it fun and natural, but morally and intellectually justifiable, too. Made-up stories teach us the formal qualities of narrative; they encourage us to tell ourselves about ourselves-and each other. They provide tools for empathy and ply us with the ability to imagine the inner lives of anonymous strangers. But sometimes... MORE >
Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, announced today that they're pushing forward the release date of Mohamed ElBaradei's book The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times. ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate for Peace, has had a heightened profile over the last week thanks to his positioning as leader of the opposition to Hosni Mubarak's... MORE >
The New York Times announces that Jane Lynch is set to write a memoir, entitled Happy Accidents. The book, due in spring, will, of course, cover her current awards-magnet work on Glee, as well as her struggle with alcoholism and accepting her homosexuality. Thankfully, it will also discuss her early roles in Christopher Guest's films. Perhaps it'll inspire young fans to seek out Best in Show!... MORE >
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