The PW Morning Report, November 17, 2008
By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 11/17/2008 6:04:00 AM
Monday, November 17, 2008
A dail
y round-up of the latest publishing news: Polling Expert Nate Silver in Two Book Deal; Joe the Plumber Gets Book Deal; Edward Sheehan Dead; Peter J. Levinson Dead; Miguel Syjuco Wins 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize; Thomas Keneally on the Making of Schindler; Novelists Ponder Black President; Pound Letters to the Harry Ransom Center; Growing Up in the White House with FDR; and Early Shakespeare Texts Pledged to Globe Theatre
Polling Expert Nate Silver in Two Book Deal With Penguin Group, reports New York Observer
With all the crazy polling data during the presidential election, Silver got it right on with his fivethirtyeight.com website. The Penguin Group has signed him to a two-book contract worth an estimated $700,000
Joe the Plumber Gets Book Deal, reports Huffington Post
I know America is breathless for this information about an unemployed Ohio plumber who doesn’t pay his taxes. But, hey, this is America and here’s the big news—the book will be called Joe the Plumber—Fighting for the American Dream, and it will be released by a group called PearlGate Publishing. By the way, Joe, you’re way over on your 15 minutes of fame. And here’s a way to jumpstart your American dream—get a job!
Edward Sheehan, Foreign Correspondent, Dead at 78, reports New York Times
The Middle East, Africa and Central America were his beat and he wrote about them in such books as Agony in the Garden (1989) and The Arabs, Israelis and Kissinger (1976). He was also the author of such novels as Innocent Darkness (1993), and Cardinal Galsworthy (1997)
Peter J. Levinson, Music Publicist and Biographer, Dead at 74, reports New York Times
Besides being a top-notch Hollywood publicist he wrote Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James (1999), September in the Rain: The Life of Nelson Riddle (2001), Tommy Dorsey: Livin’ in a Great Big Way (2005), and Puttin’ on the Ritz: Fred Astaire and the Fine Art of Panache — a Biography, which is scheduled to be published in March
Miguel Syjuco Wins 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize, reports The Bookseller
The Filipino author won for his novel Ilustrado. He received a $10,000 prize
Thomas Keneally on the Making of Schindler
The Australian author tells Reuters how he got involved with Oskar Schindler in his new book, Searching for Schindler
Novelists Ponder What A Black President Will Mean to Them
The AP talks to novelists Christopher Buckley, Richard North Patterson, David Baldacci and others to get their take on what a black president will mean to novelists. (Psssst: does the word "fodder" mean anything to you?)
Erza Pound Letters to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, reports Los Angeles Times
Jacket Copy is reporting that the collection includes more than 700 letters, some photographs, a scrapbook and two chess sets
FDR’s Grandson Remembers Growing Up in the White House
The DailyBeast.com interviews FDR’s grandson, Curtis Roosevelt, about his new book, Too Close to the Sun (PublicAffairs). Topics include growing up in the White House (as the Obama children will) and how FDR and Obama faced similar tasks
Early Shakespeare Texts Pledged to Globe Theatre, reports Reuters
U.S. collector John Wolfson has pledged his library of 450 early texts to the theater
