In a move befitting the maestro himself, Observer reporter Nate Freeman gets into a fistfight at the book party for J. Michael Lennon’s new Norman Mailer biography.
Though it’s only been out for a week, Morrissey’s autobiography has rocketed to the top of the UK bestseller list, making it one of the fastest-selling memoirs ever. Morrissey’s Penguin Classic has already sold around 35,000 copies in Britain. (Only Kate McCann’s 2011 memoir Madeleine, about the disappearance of her daughter, did better, selling 72,500 copies the first week.) Mysteriously, there’s still no sign that it will be released in the US.
Here are three “idiot-proof formulas” for building your own best-seller.
George Packer wishes Dissent a happy sixtieth birthday.
We’ve already highlighted Scratch Magazine’s interview with web editors about how much they pay their writers, but it turns out there’s a lot of other good stuff in the magazine’s inaugural issue, including an essay by Bookforum contributor Cord Jefferson and an interview with writer and professional curmudgeon Jonathan Franzen.
Did you know that during the government shutdown, Congress and a number of federal agencies temporarily (and quietly) replaced employees with unpaid interns? It’s true! The Awl talks with Intern Nation author Ross Perlin about the seedy underbelly of the volunteer economy. Relatedly, now that that Conde Nast has ended their internship program, the Atlantic is challenging readers to see whether they can tell the difference between “sorority sister” and “Conde Nast intern.”
Also, if you’re free tonight and in New York, come hear Norman Rush in conversation with TheParis Review’s Josh Pashman at McNally Jackson Books at 7.