paper trail

Prince memoir to be published in October; The similarities between novels and letters

Prince. Photo: Scott Penner

Prince’s memoir The Beautiful Ones, which was announced just before his death in 2016, will be published by Random House in October. “Spanning from his childhood to his final days as one of the most successful musical acts of all time,” The Guardian reports that the book will include “Prince’s unfinished manuscript alongside photos from his personal collection, scrapbooks and lyrics, including his original handwritten treatment for his 1984 hit Purple Rain.”

Quartz’s Annaliese Griffin examines the sexist media coverage of Pintrest as the company prepares to go public. “The fact that pinners, as the site’s users are called, skew female has been the dominant story about the company, and a distinctly gendered condescension has often defined its news coverage,” she explains.

Reflecting on the Golden Records that were sent into space with the 1977 Voyager missions, Mireille Juchau wonders what sounds and ideas to include on a twenty-first-century version.

“To read an epistolary novel is to be a voyeur. Then again, when we read novels of any kind we are peering into the lives of others,” writes Isabella Hammad on the similarities between novels and letters. “We are continually opening envelopes that don’t appear to be addressed to us.”

Biographers of Michael Jackson tell the New York Times that they’re struggling with their work after the release of HBO’s Leaving Neverland. “It complicates things in ways that are just really, really challenging,” said Joe Vogel, who is working on a new edition of his biography Man in the Music. “Not only are you thinking about how do you deal with this on a personal level, you’re also thinking about how to handle it professionally.”