Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin has acquired the archives of author and monologist Spalding Gray. (New York Times)
In a nice snapshot of the current state of e-book versus hardcover sales, John Grisham's The Confession sold about seventy thousand e-books in the first week compared to one hundred and sixty thousand hardcover books. "The e-book sales are astonishing," Grisham told the Wall Street Journal. "Would anybody have thought that a year ago? The future has arrived, and we're looking at it."
According to Variety, "Poe-themed projects are enjoying something of a revival." Eliza Graves, a film loosely based on a Poe short story, and a film adaptation of The Raven are both in the works.
Former Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal has joined Penguin to become president and publisher of a new general trade imprint. (New York Times)
For the first time in its history, the USO sent a group of authors—thriller writers—"to visit military personnel in a combat zone." Huffington Post has the first dispatch from Operation Thriller.
PCWorld has compiled five reasons why you don't need to buy an e-reader.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has sent a plea to the public for forty thousand dollars to preserve three original Charles Dickens manuscripts. "We can't display these manuscripts safely now because they are so damaged and so fragile," said a museum official. "They were last conserved in the 1960s...but the backing paper used, unfortunately, was very acidic." (CBC News)
A former director of literature at the National Endowment for the Arts has opened a free lending library and bookstore in East Los Angeles. According to Jacket Copy it opened on July 19—the day the Los Angeles Public Library dropped to a five-day weekly schedule.
The New York Times gathered six poems to mark the end of daylight savings time.
