The New York Times looks into allegations that Harper Lee was pressured into publishing Go Set A Watchman, the “parent” novel, written in the mid-1950s, of To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, has persistently denied the rumors. Her story is corroborated by some, including a friend of Lee’s who visited her last summer. “Tonja has the full confidence of Nelle,” the friend told the Times. “And I can say with confidence that Tonja would not do anything that Nelle would not want her to do.” Isn’t it fishy, though, that all communications of Lee’s feelings about the book come through Carter?
VIDA, which publishes an annual report describing the representation of women in the media, is expanding its count this year to include women of color. The organization will email all the women it counts with a survey asking them to self-identity, if they so choose, and describe whether they consider themselves to be “aided or impeded” by their race or ethnicity.
The shortlist for the Folio Prize, which is based in England but doesn’t require the writers it judges to be from there, names Ali Smith, Ben Lerner, Colm Tóibín, Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Akhil Sharma, and Miriam Toews.
The final Sunday issue of the Wall Street Journal appeared last weekend. The section is closing for financial reasons, explained the editor, David Crook, in an announcement on Saturday: “Advertisers are abandoning broad, middle-market media.”
Vox and Buzzfeed are both publishing their first interviews with President Obama. Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias conducted Vox’s interview, which appeared yesterday. The editor in chief of Buzzfeed, Ben Smith, will talk to the president today.
