2009/07/12
Literature’s hottest new stars are already dead
Interesting article at The Guardian about how the literary publishing world is surviving the economic crisis thanks to previously unknown or unpublished works by some of our greatest authors:
Meet the newest literary stars of America
Authors whose newly discovered or revised works are now being published in the US include Mark Twain, Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene, JRR Tolkien, William Styron, Mary Shelley and Ernest Hemingway.
Why are these finds so economically viable?
Such big names offer publishers the prospect of free publicity and a built-in fan base. “It is a predetermined audience. Publishers love that,” said Laura Dawson, chief executive of the publishing industry consultancy firm LJN Dawson. “It is like manna from heaven.”
I was talking with some folks at this year’s MELUS conference about which literature courses were most popular with college students. My colleagues pointed out that we need to continue requiring that students take courses in pre-1800 literature because otherwise those classes never fill up. It seems students really do prefer the more modern authors. But we quickly realized that they aren’t taking ethnic American or even contemporary literature. No, they’re most interested in Hemingway and Woolf and their kin.
I usually think these folks get too much scholarly attention, but if it keeps publishers afloat nowadays, I will be thankful!
