Hearing on the radio that the great physicist Michal Faraday was apprenticed to a bookbinder and bookseller, which gave him seven years' free access to reading material, reminded me of another of my favourite book-related anecdotes. The shots that killed (or did they?) J. F. Kennedy, were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald from the sixth floor of The Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.I love whimsical stories about the role of books and writers on the greater events of history. Contributions anyone?
All best, Alison
Alison Baverstock is the author of Marketing your book, an author’s guide (A&C Black) and is course leader of the MA Publishing at Kingston University.
She is speaking at the Writers' & Artists' Insider Guide to How to Get Published conference on Saturday 19 June. Click here for booking information »
Her latest book, How to Get a Job in a Museum or Art Gallery (A&C Black), is out now.
Xean Puccio on June 18, 2010
Hello again Alison. Faraday’s story reminds me of Einstein, who once worked as a patent clerk. By the way, Michael Faraday was British as opposed to Michal (just a typo I’m sure), which is more east-european and reminiscent of the original Hebrew Mikael, meaning one “who is like God”. Incidentally, Faraday was also a chemist who tinkered with electricity, the stuff that powers today’s magical gadgets; which allow us to feel like gods, even when we sometimes behave less than human.
Kennedy. What’s weirder was that supposedly inaugural poet Robert Frost had trouble reading at the inauguration.
I’m sure it’s just coincidence, but the importance of literature in history for America and other nations as well cannot be denied. Negatively, one can cite President Bush reading to children during a national tragedy. On the flip side, take for example Common Sense by Thomas Paine. It galvanized the colonials (Yo), to take a stand against royalists (Yo), which resulted in the war of American independence (who you’re calling a Yo-Yo?) and subsequent formation of a new nation.
One of my favorite anecdotes is about writer James Joyce. He knew prose and poems by heart, so they say.
Xean
6/6/18/2010
Alison Baverstock on June 26, 2010
Thanks for that - really interesting. I am just reading the winner of the Orange Prize, 'The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver. I am not sure if this is fact or fiction, but she has the assassin of Trotsky gaining access to his heavily protected study by offering him a second (and unwelcome) read of a bad novel.
Xean Puccio on June 28, 2010
You're welcome. ‘Lacuna’ - interesting title…one of the words we usually never hear; roughly means a missing something. Sounds mysterious, might be a good read.
Xean
2/6/28/2010