Two fiercely independent American writers died Wednesday: Howard Zinn and J. D. Salinger (above-taking a swing at a photographer).

I won’t try to compose an obituary for either of these men. The New York Times has fine obituaries posted here (for Zinn) and here (for Salinger).

What I like to think about both of these men is that throughout their careers, they could have taken the easy way out. They were both smart enough that they could have followed conventional wisdom or prostituted their gifts to the highest bidders. But neither men ever sold out.

Zinn, who called his life story You Can’t Be Neutral On a Moving Train, faced conflicts both inside and outside of the world of academia. His boss at Boston University said that Zinn was an example of those who would “poison the well of academe”. And it was interesting to listen to conservative commentators on the radio decry Zinn as evil, yet failing to mention anything substantive about what he had written.

Salinger got a lot of grief for withdrawing from public life and publishing, but I never had a problem with it, despite my desire to read more of his writings. Imagine that you’ve written a novel that neatly sums up your alienation with life and personal expectations surrounding it. Then you suddenly see a bunch of kids with Johnny Unitas haircuts telling you how your book changed their lives.

To Salinger, this must have seemed like the phonies thought he could identify with them and nothing could be further from the truth. Suddenly his cynical view of humanity is validated and all he could do was flee.

It reminds me of another apostle of youth, who transformed the pain of alienation into mega-success: Kurt Cobain, the frontman for Nirvana. Here was a case of the outcast making it big, and suddenly, the people who were the cause of his misery were embracing his music. It had to have driven him nuts to see frat boys moshing in the pits of Nirvana concerts, wear Nirvan shirts, and declare that Nirvana ’speaks to them’.

Sadly Cobain’s withdraw was a lot more dramatic and lot more permanent.

While Salinger, for literary intents and purposes, died over forty years ago, the world is nonetheless poorer for the loss of these iconoclasts.

(photo via MobyLives)

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

Back in 2005, during the second season Lost, a semi-obscure novel (The Third Policeman) by a semi-obscure Irishman (Flann O’Brien, semi-obscure in America at least) was featured in an episode, causing the novel to sell as many copies in three weeks as it had the previous six years.

According to io9.com, the novel Deep River by Shusaku Endo is alleged to figure into Lost’s upcoming sixth season.

However, as it’s possible that lighting will strike twice, my impression of the show (I don’t watch it) is that viewers are getting frustrated with it, so I would be surprised if Deep River sees a genuine sales spike.

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

Bookseller.com in the UK is reporting that author Ian McEwan has signed with Amazon to distribute his ebook back-catalog.

Gotta hand it to Amazon, that’s one way to make sure that you can release Kindle versions of books priced the way you want.

I don’t think it takes a Magic 8-Ball to see that Amazon is two shakes away from plundering star writers for Frontlist titles. Imagine how we’ll feel when the next chapter of Sarah Palin’s life story, instead of being delayed in ebook format, will be released as Kindle exclusives, forcing Luddite readers to cough up the lettuce for the device.

It will be either that or wait six months to read the new Stephen King (who has already prostituted himself to written an exclusive short story forAmazon), and pay more for the privilege of reading a paper and ink book.

(via Bookninja)

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

There is a great article over at the LA Times that explores the final decade of SF author Philip K. Dick’s life that was spent in Orange County, California.

Not much that I can add to with this one. It makes sense that such a paranoid work as A Scanner Darkly would be written in the shadow of Disneyland.

(via io9.com)

• Leave a comment... (3)

This will either make a lot of adults feel better about their own middle school experience, or it will embolden a new generation of pre-teen sadists.

The film is scheduled to open April 2nd, so start stocking up on the books now.

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

Seems an intern at Random House jumped the gun when they tweeted that When You Reach Me had won the Newbery Medal minutes before it was actually announced at the ALA convention.

Whoops.

Random House attributes the premature tweet to ‘human error’.

So, I’m speculating that an intern was responsible…still, it’s easy to imagine.

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

Erich Segal, author of Boomer weepie Love Story, passed away on Sunday at the age of 72.

Nick Owchar, writing at Jacket Copy, pens an even handed remembrance of the author, comparing him (rightly) to Nicholas Sparks, calling them both writers of “bereavement fiction”.

Personally, my favorite assessment of Love Story (well of the film, anyway) comes from The Simpsons, when Lisa, forced endure watching with her sobbing parents, shouts to the television after hearing the famous line about how being in love means never having to say you’re sorry-

No it doesn’t, this movie is nothing but trite sayings and gibberish. She’s plaid and vapid and no matter what he does, he’s still Ryan O’Neal.

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

Will it be the rumored tablet computer/media player/e-reader?

It’s not hard to guess what the new gizmo will be (especially since Apple is allegedly in negotiations with Harpercollins to sell ebooks), nonetheless, all eyes will be glued to their press conference a week from Wednesday.

Whatever it is, I hope it isn’t the reintroduction of the MessagePad/Newton.

(via Gizmodo)

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

William J. Lederer, the co-author of The Ugly American, a novel about the inefficacy  of American foreign policy in Southeast Asia, passed away on December 5th.

For some reason, the New York Times only ran his obituary on Thursday of last week (January 14th).

It’s mind-boggling that somebody who wrote such an influential (in its day) book, one that has become a cultural shorthand for a certain strain of American attitudes and behaviors,  should have to wait over a month for his obituary to appear in the paper of record.

Perhaps things would be different if he had spent his later years in reality television shows.

(photo credit W. Jonathan Lederer, via the New York Times)

• Leave a comment... Comments Off

That the same week that Wall Street execs were confronted by Congress about their role in the current financial crisis, a report on illegal book downloads shows that the most frequently downloaded books aren’t Twilight novels or porn, but business and investing titles?

• Leave a comment... Comments Off