Random links: Madeleine L’Engle, creative publicity and awards

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Madeleine L’Engle: A wonderful storyteller died last week. ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ was a book that taught many children to dream of other worlds, including the realms of science, long before other authors--like Philip Pullman--appeared. Many obits and tributes have been posted since the news broke.

Earlier this year, the publisher Square Fish repackaged and relaunched L’Engle’s ‘Time Quintet’ (the novels ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ ‘A Wind in the Door,’ ‘A Swiftly Tilting Planet,’ ‘Many Waters’ and ‘An Acceptable Time’) to introduce a new generation of readers to the late author.

Creative publicity: Last October, in the pages of Book Review, Ursula K. Le Guin reviewed Susanna Clarke’s ‘The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories,’ the follow-up to her Rowling-sized novel of wizardry ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.’ Le Guin offered some mild praise but overall found the book small and unimportant. Well, that didn’t stop Bloomsbury from using her words on the cover of the new paperback. There she is, declaring that the book is ‘Vivid and amusing...magically funny.’ Uh, actually, Le Guin’s comment was only about one story in the collection. Here’s what she wrote:

‘ ‘Tom Brightwind or How the Fairy Bridge Was Built at Thoresby’ is a charming story. Characters, setting and plot are all vivid and amusing, and the building of the much-needed bridge is magically funny.’

Nice try.

Many awards: Ian McEwan’s ‘On Chesil Beach’ tops the 2007 Man Booker shortlist though there’s much else that’s interesting (Nicola Barker’s darkly comic ghost story ‘Darkmans,’ for instance). Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ continues its award-collecting journey, picking up this year’s Quill award for general fiction, while Diane Setterfield has been named ‘debut author of the year’ for her gothic novel ‘The Thirteenth Tale.’ The National Book Foundation has announced that Joan Didion will receive the medal for ‘distinguished contribution to American letters’ at its Nov. 14 ceremony (hosted by Fran Lebowitz). National Public Radio’s Terry Gross will also be honored with the ‘literarian award for outstanding service to the American literary community.’ At a separate event, on Oct. 10 in Philadelphia, Camille Paglia is expected to present this year’s National Book Award finalists.

Nick Owchar