Do we have any Boxing Gloves?

"Do we have any Boxing Gloves, Mommy"? my son asked tonight as I put him to bed.
"No son we don't". I replied.
"But we have to have them for the 26th", he said. "Coz that's Boxing day".

Bookends - A New Musical about Old Friends

I just discovered those two old and dear friends, Rostenberg and Stern this year. They were 2 Jewish women who refused to do what tradition said - which was to get married and raise a family, and leave the menfolk to do the business. Instead they got together and started their own Rare Books Business and ran it for over 50 years. They produced dozens of catalogues, and also did a large amount of Bibliophilic scholarly research.

Madeleine Stern discovered Louisa May Alcott's pseudonym under which she (Alcott) wrote a number of "racy" novels, that were totally different from the Little Women & Little Men series. Stern died earlier this year. Leona Rostenberg wrote a few books about the history of printing in Europe. She died in 2005.

I also heard something about a musical based on their lives. Well I finally found some information about the Musical. It was produced and performed by the New Jersey Repertory Company. it's called BOOKENDS and it received some good reviews.

I wonder if this musical will ever come to Canada. Maybe I might suggest it to the local theatre company. Because I for one would LOVE to see it.

In the Company of Writers by Charles Scribner Jr

In the Company of Writers: A Life in Publishing
By Charles Scribner Jr (CS IV 1921-1995)
Charles Scribner & Sons Published 1990
Scribner Timeline

In 1945 Charles Scribner Junior (officially CS IV) joined his family's publishing firm. Charles was born in 1921, in Quogue, Long Island, New York, but raised in New Jersey from a young age. CS IV graduated from Princeton University in 1943, and promptly joined the Navy as cryptanalyst.


After the war was over, he joined the family firm in 1946, as the director of advertising and publicity. Scribner grew up knowing and being friends with well known authors such Ernest Hemingway, CS Snow, Scott Fitzgerald, PD James, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Alan Paton, Charles Lindburgh.

This book describes Charles's time as a publisher, director, chairman of Scribners, actions he took, and chances he missed. And always there were the authors. But the most famous friendship Charles had, was with Ernest Hemingway. This friendship was a continuation of Hemingway's ongoing friendship with Charles father (CS III).

Hemingway was a prolific letter writer and, in 1981, many of these letters were published by Scribner in Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters. It was met with some controversy as Hemingway himself stated he never wished to publish his letters. Further letters were published in a book of his correspondence with his editor Max Perkins, The Only Thing that Counts in 1996 [Wikipedia].

In the Company of Writers is a very nice book if you really want to know how a publishing company works. You follow all the actions Charles made, commiserate with the mistakes he made, and enjoy the successes. I enjoyed it, but it does get a little dry in places.

In 1984 Scribners became part of Macmillan Publishing, and later Scribner became an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Audio files of interviews by Charles Scribner IV about running a Publishing company, and about this book. Oh and this is read for the Bibliography challenge, which means I have now read 4 books for that challenge. Now I'm done. LOL

Napoleon wrote a love story?

Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte wrote a love story. Back when he was a writer, before he became a general. Today comes news that page one of this manuscript was sold at auction in Paris, France for CDN$35,000. It was just a short story - barely 22 pages - but it was in Napoleon's handwriting. I'm surprised it didn't go for a lot more.

Richard Leigh dead at 64

So who was Richard Leigh? Well back in the early 1980's he co-write this little book that the catholic church hated, and said it was heresy. If it was not for me reading this little book, I would not have made the decision I did to leave the church I was raised in. And if it was not for this book, Dan Brown would not have written such a succesful novel about some painter, since he virtually lifted a major name from this other little known book, and was taken to court for it. Dan Brown won. And of course the other little book was called Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Codex by Lev Grossman - Book Review

Codex
By Lev Grossman
Harcourt Books 2004

About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hotshot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. His task is to search their library stacks for a precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons.


At the same time, Edward is also involved in a computer game but in this game he takes a wrong turn, and finds an "easter egg". When he asks for help to get out of the easter egg, he discovers that the codex is also an easter egg.

An Easter Egg is a term that refers to an undocumented feature or novelty that is in a [computer] program that the makers of that program placed in the program for additional fun and credits. Easter Eggs are in no way destructive to any software or hardware within the computer and are usually meant for something unique and fun.

Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward breaks into the stacks of a specialist library to find a box of books missing from the family library and thought to be stored there for safekeeping. They find the box, full of old books but not the codex. Until Margaret gets an idea and looks more closely at the old books.

The entire story takes place over two weeks. The story reads somewhat dry in places, but it is very interesting. Edward is relatively developed, but Margaret is not. I feel she could have been a lot more developed. There is very little background on her.

Anyone for Jane Austen?

My father is a huge fan of Jane Austen's novels. And despite growing up around him, I don't remember reading any of her novels - except maybe for Pride and Prejudice. I have seen the P&P TV series (starring Colin Firth). And recently I picked up an interesting novel about Mr Darcy. It's called Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer.

So last night while surfing, I discovered the Jane Austen Challenge. Read or watch a minimum of 2 Jane Austen-related books or movies. Starting January 1st, 2008.

I think I will join this because I really do need to read or see more Jane Austen. So I will read Darcy's Story and watch the movies - Becoming Jane and Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow version).

Take the Quiz here!