Philippa Gregory has signed on to write four books with Touchstone. Three of the books will be a series of novels, following a British family from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century. Gregory’s fourth book will be a work of nonfiction that explores “the contributions of extraordinary, yet little-known women throughout the centuries, historically demonstrating women as agents of their own destinies.” The first book will be published in September 2019.
The Huffington Post has a new name: HuffPost. Editor in chief Lydia Polgreen said the decision came from a desire to reflect “what our readers call us anyway.” In a letter from the editor, Polgreen addressed the renaming and redesign of the site, which she says comes from a desire to reach “people experiencing anger, voicelessness and powerlessness” on all sides of the political spectrum. “The biggest divide in America, indeed across the globe, is between those who have power and those who don’t, and that doesn’t easily line up with our red and blue, left or right politics,” she writes. “I think we can do better for people who feel that too much political and economic power has accrued to a very small elite.”
Tucker Carlson is working on a book deal. The Fox News host, who recently took over for Bill O’Reilly, is aiming for a million-dollar contract. “The book is not autobiographical in nature,” one source told BuzzFeed, “but rather reflects on themes Carlson cares about.”
Rafia Zakaria details the history of Hogarth Press, which was founded by Virginia and Leonard Woolf partly to “free the couple from the whims of publishers.” Although the new press eased the literary couple’s stress from waiting for publishers to answer their letters, it wasn’t always easy. After losing friends due to contract negotiations and other aspects of the business, Zakaria writes, “Virginia and Leonard both discovered that the limitations of publishers, their one-time oppressors, were now their own.”
Maylis de Kerangal’s Mend the Living has become only the second novel to win the Wellcome prize for science writing. The book, released as The Heart in the US, details the twenty four hours surrounding a heart transplant—from the car accident that left a teenager with catastrophic injuries to the organ recipient’s surgery.
Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, died yesterday at the age of 88. The LA Times notes that Pirsig’s book was rejected by 121 publishers, and “the 122nd gently warned Pirsig . . . not to expect more than his $3,000 advance.” The book eventually sold over five million copies and was translated into dozens of languages.
Tonight at Albertine, Teju Cole talks to Édouard Louis about his new book, The End of Eddy.
