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Romance novel
publisher gets
FIRE-BOMBED!
It doesn't do to upset some
thin-skinned people as a British publisher discovered
in September 2008.
A first novel by Sherry Jones, The Jewel of Medina,
dealt in fictional form with the life of A'isha, child
bride of Muhammad. It follows her life from her
engagement to Muhammad when she was aged just six to
the death of the Prophet. The subject of A'isha
has always been a sensitive one with Muslims in that
Muhammad has been accused of child abuse in taking her
to live with him at the age of nine years [he was then
aged 52 - enough said!].
Random House says it received 'cautionary advice not
only that the publication of this book might be
offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also
that it could incite acts of violence by a small
radical segment.'
The novel was then taken up by a UK publisher, Gibson
Square Books, headed by Martin Rynja.
In the early hours of 26 September 2008 three men
dressed in black approached Mr Rynja's home in
Islington and poured petrol into the building through
the letterbox, setting it alight. The fire brigade
quickly extinguished the fire and police arrested
three men aged 40, 30 and 22, held under the UK
Terrorism Act. Police were reportedly searching
properties in Ilford, Walthamstow and Forest Gate.
The publisher commented: 'If a novel of quality that
casts light on a beautiful subject we know too little
of in the West cannot be published here, it would mean
the clock has been turned back to the Dark Ages.’
The book eventually appeared with an initial print run
of 35,000 copies and reportedly there has been
relatively little trouble since.
Errata
Slip(up)s
Errata Slips -
those afterthoughts of the publisher hastily
inserted into books before they take flight
into the wider world - often prove to be a
great source of humour. Of course, the poor
publisher might not have had humour in
his/her mind but . . . well, they can be
very funny.
Some
examples . . .
PULL THE OTHER ONE?
When the
publishers of the US edition of the book Easy Sky Diving discovered an
error the book was recalled and an erratum
slip inserted which read: 'Please make the
following correction: On page 8 line 7
"State zip code" should read "Pull rip
cord."
POTENT BREW!
An erratum
slip in the book Wines and Spirits by
L.W. Marrison (Penguin) reads: 'Coates &
Co (Plymouth) Ltd, the sole makers of
Plymouth Gin, point out that . the special
flavour is in no way due to the use of
sulphuric acid. The author and publishers
regret the inaccurate statements to the
contrary which appear on page 252.'
ERRONEOUS ERRATA SLIP
A
book dealer, Brian Ameringen reported to a
trade paper that he had come across an
erratum slip in a copy of the book Unlikely Stories by Alistair
Gray which stated simply: 'Erratum - This
slip has been inserted by mistake.'
The book dealer signed off his message with
the comment: 'If this email has been sent in
error - please disregard it.'
Rejected!
But
THEY had the last laugh . . .
Literary history
has hundreds of examples of publishers
rejecting books that, when eventually
published, made their authors famous and (in
some cases) rich.
In our own time one of the most famous cases
involved J.K. Rowling whose wildly successful
Harry Potter
series did not find a publisher (Bloomsbury)
until the author was rejected by nine other
publishers.
In an earlier era the classic memoir The Diary of
Anne Frank was reportedly rejected by
16 publishers before being taken up by
Doubleday. Since it appeared it has sold
untold millions of copies.
A mountain of rejection slips - reportedly 140
of them - greeted Richard Bach's efforts to
get his Jonathan
Living Seagull published. Margaret
Mitchell collected 38 such slips when she
offered Gone
With the Wind to publishers. Richard
Adams chalked up 26 rejections when he offered
Watership
Down, while Dune by Frank Herbert was
knocked back 20 times before seeing the light
of day
'The secret of success
is constancy of purpose' (Disraeli).
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P.G.
Wodehouse dedicated one of his books, The Heart of a Goof,
to his daughter. Wodehouse wrote:
'To my daughter
Leonora without whose never-failing sympathy and
encouragement this book would have been finished
in half the time.'
Liberal
publisher dies
Richard Seaver, of
Grove Press and Arcade Publishing fame, has
died, aged 83.
Seaver was involved in the
publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover by
D.H. Lawrence, a book that upset moralists
in more than one country. The book was
banned from the postal service in the USA,
ever a handy mode of censorship there, and
the English publisher was involved in
criminal proceedings in the UK. Eventually
the book was allowed free circulation in
both countries.
Other legal difficulties followed the
publication of books by Henry Miller,
William Burroughs and Hubert Selby. Grove
also published an English edition of The Story of O
by 'Pauline Reage' (Dominique Aury). See the
story of this latter book below . . .
The Curious
tale of
The Story of O
First published
in France in 1954 in what were described as
'mysterious circumstances', under the title,
Histoire
d'O, by Pauline Réage.
This work of erotic and sadomasochistic
fiction was believed by most commentators to
have been written under a pseudonym.
Much speculation followed its publication as
to the identity of the author, many
believing the writer to be a male rather
than a female. It was first published
in English by the Olympia Press in 1970 and
has since been reprinted by Corgi Books in a
paperback edition many times.
While some critics have condemned it as
minor erotica, its position as a masterpiece
of literature is hard to deny. It has
become one of the most widely published,
translated and read works of modern times
and the constant references to it in many
contexts highlights its importance. It
obviously strikes some chord of recognition
in the human psyche.
Basically the story is a tale of perversity
yet of reality. For all the gains made
by the women's movement it is hard to escape
the fact that men, taken as a whole, still
dominate or wish to dominate women. O,
stripped, degraded, beaten, chained,
trained, and marked for the service of her
masters, may be an alarming creature to
witness but is she so different from 10
million, 100 million other women? The
difference is surely in kind. And O's
experience had a depth to it not often found
in such women.
The oppressed woman of the Islamic world,
the battered housewife or lover, these are
all of them Os. And yet - there is
something, surely, more noble in the heroine
of this story, the gaining of a sort of
transcendent ecstasy through the giving of
herself and through suffering. It is
doubtful that many of the real-world
sufferers have gained as O did.
The work was issued with an Introduction
written by Jean Paulhan, a conservative
writer. No further clues are provided
as to the author, except that he or she was
almost certainly French. The book was
a succès de scandale when it
was published.
The Story of O is considered to
be a work of classic erotica; although
containing many graphic passages it has not
suffered censorship as much as many other
literary works. It has been made into
a film by Just Jaeckin, starring Corinne
Clery as O, with Anthony Steel, Udo Kier and
Jean Gaven.
In his introductory comments, Paulhan
relates how in 1838, following the
proclamation of emancipation of the slaves
on Barbados in March of that year, a group
of slaves presented themselves to their
former master, Glenelg, demanding that they
should be taken back into servitude. A
debate followed and the former slaveowner
refused, whereupon he and his family were
massacred. The former slaves went back
to their cabins and their tasks as if
nothing had changed. There was, of
course, an investigation and punishments
handed out by the Governor.
Many thought that Paulhan himself was the
author, who reportedly 'discovered' the
original manuscript. Various names
were suggested, including André
Malraux and Raymond Queneau. A careful
reading of the introductory story to its
sequel served to strengthen the view that
the original author was indeed a
woman. The sequel, Retour
à Roissy (Return to
the Chateau), with a short introductory
story, A Girl in Love, appeared in 1969,
published by Jean-Jacques Pauvert, at
Paris. It was issued in an English
translation by Grove Press Inc, New York, in
1971.
In July 1994 the secret of Pauline
Réage's identity was finally
revealed. The writer was indeed a
female, Dominique Aury, now 86, a French
editor and writer, who, it seems, wrote the
original in the form of a love-letter to
Jean Paulhan, which is how he came to write
the book's Introduction, although he had
always steadfastly denied he knew who wrote
it.
Ms Aury was in her 40s and Paulhan in his
70s when she wrote her now-famous
work. Paulhan and Ms Aury remained
lovers until the former's death some years
ago. It has still not been revealed
who provided the English translation of the
book but it seems probable that the
publisher Richard Seaver (see above) was
reponsible.
Corinne Clery in the movie version of
The
Story of O. I guess one might describe it as a restrained
performance on the part of the beautiful Ms
Clery.
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Secrets of
the fiction writer
In the 18th century an
Italian dramatist named Carlo Gozzi proposed the
notion that all storylines could be reduced to 36
dramatic situations. His ideas were developed and
extended by a 19th century French writer Georges Polti
who produced a book titled (in its English version), The Thirty-Six Dramatic
Situations.
Polti provided many extended
examples and illustrations of his thesis. Modern
reprints of the book are available. But, for quick
reference, here is a list in abbreviated form of the
36:
1. Supplication: There is a Persecutor and a
Supplicant; a Power in authority, whose decision is
doubtful.
2. Deliverance: There is an Unfortunate; a Threatener;
and a Rescuer.
3. A Crime Pursued by Vengeance: There is a Criminal
and an Avenger.
4. Vengeance taken for Kindred upon Kindred: Guilty
Kinsman; an Avenging Kinsman; remembrance of the
Victim, a relative of both.
5. Pursuit: Punishment; and a Fugitive.
6. Disaster: Vanquished Power; a Victorious Enemy or a
Messenger.
7. Falling prey to cruelty or misfortune: An
Unfortunate; a Master or a Misfortune.
8. Revolt: A Tyrant; a Conspirator.
9. Daring enterprise: A Bold Leader; an Object; an
Adversary.
10. Abduction: An Abductor; the Abducted; a Guardian
11. The enigma: A Problem; an Interrogator; a Seeker.
12. Obtaining: A Solicitor & an Adversary who is
refusing; or an Arbitrator & Opposing Parties.
13. Enmity of kinsmen: A Malevolent Kinsman; a Hatred
or a reciprocally-hating Kinsman.
14. Rivalry of kinsman: The Preferred Kinsman; the
Rejected Kinsman; the Object of Rivalry.
15. Murderous adultery: Two Adulterers; a Betrayed
Spouse.
16. Madness: A Madman; a Victim.
17. Fatal imprudence: The Imprudent; a Victim, or an
Object Lost.
18. Involuntary crimes of love: A Lover; a Beloved; a
Revealer.
19. Slaying of kindred unrecognized: The Slayer; an
Unrecognized Victim.
20. Self-sacrifice for an ideal: A Hero; an Ideal; a
Creditor or a Person or Thing sacrificed.
21. Self-sacrifice for kindred: A Hero; a Kinsman; a
Creditor or a Person or Thing sacrificed
22. All Sacrificed for Passion: A Lover; an Object of
fatal Passion; the Person or Thing sacrificed.
23. Necessity of Sacrificing Loved Ones: A Hero; a
Beloved Victim; and Necessity for the Sacrifice.
24. Rivalry of Superior and Inferior: A Superior
Rival; an Inferior Rival; the Object of Rivalry.
25. Adultery: Two Adulterers; a Deceived Spouse.
26. Crimes of Love: A Lover; the Beloved.
27. Discovery of the Dishonour of a Loved One: The
Discoverer; the Guilty One.
28. Obstacles to Love: Two Lovers; an Obstacle.
29. An Enemy Loved: A Lover; the Beloved Enemy; the
Hater.
30. Ambition: An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an
Adversary.
31. Conflict with a god: A Mortal; an Immortal.
32. Mistaken Jealousy: A Jealous One; an Object of
whose Possession He is Jealous; a Supposed Accomplice;
a Cause or an Author of the Mistake.
33. Erroneous Judgement: A Mistaken One; a Victim of
the Mistake; a Cause or Author of the Mistake; the
Guilty One.
34. Remorse: A Culprit; a Victim or the Sin; an
Interrogator.
35. Recovery of a Lost One: A Seeker; the One Found.
36. Loss of Loved Ones: A Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman
Spectator; an Executioner.
Among
some
amusing and amazing book titles . . .
People Who Don't Know
They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to
Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It. (Weiser)
Gary Leon Hill purports to take his
readers on an excursion into the realm of the
afterlife. I quote from Google Book Search: 'Hill tells
how his Uncle Wally and Aunt Ruth came to counsel
dead spirits who took up residence in bodies that
didn't belong to them. He was woven this
fascinating story with the history and theory of
what happens at death.'
Strip
and Knit With Style.
A gentleman with the name of Mark Hordyszynski
tells how to make projects - no not by getting the
girl's clothes off but by using strips
of various fabrics. Unusual book with an
unusual title!
Living with Crazy
Buttocks. (Penguin)
Australian humorist Kaz Cooke
turns her facile pen to the task of giving us per
opinion on many topics. [Currently I have a copy
of this in stock - and at a bargain price!]
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Approx. A4 size, typical
children's (politically incorrect) book with
cloth on spine. Has 16 large full-colour plates
of the stylized art. There are also small B&W illustrations in
text. The boards are rubbed and sun-affected but
fair. There is some small edge damage. The paper within shows signs of finger
marking. It is otherwise intact and fairly tight
and, having regard to childish use, is a
reasonably good copy of the book. 
