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Spy Author Le Carré Was Tempted to Join Soviets

Curiosity, not ideology, piqued his interest

(Newser) - British spy novelist John le Carré once considered defecting to the Soviet Union out of curiosity about the country, he told an interviewer while promoting his new book. “When you spy intensively and you get closer and closer to the border it seems such a small step to jump...

Genre-Setting Travel Author Dies at 47

Dave Freeman visited about half the sites on his adventurous list

(Newser) - Dave Freeman, co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die, died at age 47 after falling and hitting his head at his California home last week, the Los Angeles Times reports. Published in 1999, the free-spirited travel guide, among the first to offer a sight-seeing agenda based on adventure...

Obama Launches Corsi Counterstrike
Obama Launches Corsi Counterstrike
Aug 15, 2008 10:10 AM CDT

Obama Launches Corsi Counterstrike

Candidate hits back at Obama Nation with detailed rebuttal

(Newser) - Barack Obama is launching an aggressive counterattack on Obama Nation, the Jerome Corsi book aimed to derail his reputation, Talking Points Memo reports. In sharp contrast to John Kerry's "don't dignify that with a response" approach to Corsi's book demolishing the decorated veteran's Swift Boat record, the Obama campaign...

Swift Boat Author Aims to Sink Obama

Attack book portrays candidate as having secret radical agenda

(Newser) - The author who helped torpedo John Kerry's White House bid is aiming to make it two for two, the New York Times reports. Jerome Corsi's Unfit for Command launched the Swift Boat controversy. His new book, Obama Nation, portrays Barack Obama as a radical liberal with strong ties to Islam,...

How 5,000 Years of Marriage Led Us to 'I Do'
How 5,000 Years of Marriage Led Us to 'I Do'
REVIEW
Aug 10, 2008 3:38 PM CDT

How 5,000 Years of Marriage Led Us to 'I Do'

Modern lovers aim to invert roles long 'set in stone,' author says

(Newser) - Author Susan Squire takes a long view of marriage—about 5,000 years, in fact. Her new book, I Don’t: A Contrarian History of Marriage, traces matrimony’s bizarre historical journey, from pure mating ritual to Christian "lust-containment facility" to modern romance. In an interview with Salon, she...

US Publisher Yanks Novel on Mohammed

Random House feared violence over work on prophet's child bride

(Newser) - Random House has pulled a book about the life of Mohammed due to be published this week, Reuters reports. The company feared that The Jewel of  Medina, a historical novel and love story about Mohammed and Aisha—a child bride who was engaged to the prophet when she was 6—...

Graphic Bod Novel Jars Germany
Graphic Bod Novel Jars Germany
Jun 6, 2008 4:16 AM CDT

Graphic Bod Novel Jars Germany

Female author delves way deep into sex and femininity

(Newser) - A highly explicit novel that explores every body crevice of its teenage female narrator has scandalized Germany—and topped bestseller lists, the New York Times reports. The controversial novel, which mixes the anatomical and scatological with the erotic, is a feminist statement challenging a world that expects women to be...

Footprints Poem Leads to Authorship Suit

Long Island man claims his mom wrote poem in Great Depression

(Newser) - A religious poem that adorns coffee mugs and T-shirts worldwide may now inspire a court battle, the Washington Post reports. A Long Island man has filed suit claiming that his mother wrote the inspirational work, "Footprints in the Sand." At least a dozen others have claimed authorship of...

Lover Suspected Mailer of Gay Sex

Mistress jotted suspicions in archives purchased by Harvard

(Newser) - One of Norman Mailer’s mistresses suspected the writer of having a gay affair—or perhaps several, reports the Times of London. Mailer also asked lover Carole Mallory to have three-way sex with a gay man, according to her notes in archives recently purchased by Harvard University. One of the...

Mystery of Little Prince Author's Fate Solved

German vet tells archaeologist, 'I shot down Saint-Exupéry'

(Newser) - One of aviation’s great mysteries has been solved: What happened to Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, the French pilot and author of The Little Prince, who disappeared in 1944. A bracelet turned up in the Mediterranean a decade ago, then a sunken aircraft. An archeologist diver, not satisfied to...

Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90
 Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90 
Mar 18, 2008 8:55 PM CDT

Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90

'2001' author shaped space-age thought

(Newser) - Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi author who helped shape 20th-century scientific imagination, is dead at 90, the New York Times reports. The co-creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey faced post-polio syndrome in recent decades and died at his home in Sri Lanka due to breathing trouble. “No one can...

How to Fake a Memoir
 How to Fake a Memoir 
Mar 12, 2008 4:03 PM CDT

How to Fake a Memoir

Embellish the story without getting caught, Slate scribe suggests

(Newser) - Misha Defonseca's memoir left a sticky trail of lies about escaping Nazis and living with wolves. (It turns out wolf saliva isn't an antiseptic.) Tired of careless fabricators, Slate writes a how-to for aspiring fakers:
  • Keep it vague. Dates are verifiable—"awhile" is not.
  • Watch out for tattling
...

On the Road Scroll on Display
On the Road Scroll on Display
Mar 9, 2008 6:30 PM CDT

On the Road Scroll on Display

Visitors can see the scroll of Kerouac's classic novel

(Newser) - Beat lovers can check out the manuscript of Jack Kerouac's classic novel On the Road at the University of Texas, where it is displayed complete with scribbles and scratch outs. A long glass case allows visitors to view about a third of the book, which was written uninterrupted in a...

Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dead at 69

Gary Gygax rocked the gaming world

(Newser) - Widely revered Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, regarded as the father of role-playing games, has died at his home in Wisconsin after years of health problems, AP reports. He was 69. Together with Dave Arneson, Gygax created the massively popular medieval fantasy Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 that struck...

Gang Memoir Exposed as Fiction
Gang Memoir Exposed
as Fiction
Mar 4, 2008 7:50 AM CST

Gang Memoir Exposed as Fiction

Author of Love and Consequences fesses up to fabricating

(Newser) - Margaret Jones' acclaimed memoir of a half-Native American girl growing up in a foster home in South Central LA and running with gangs, Love and Consequences, turns out to be fiction, the New York Times reports. Jones, whose real name is Seltzer, grew up with her birth parents in an...

JK Rowling to Speak at Harvard Commencement

Hogwarts creator will get honorary degree

(Newser) - Harvard students will get a Hogwarts send-off at their spring commencement this year, reports the Crimson, with Harry Potter author JK Rowling as the keynote speaker.  "Perhaps no one in our time has done more than JK Rowling to inspire young people to experience the excitement and the...

Harry Potter and the Murdered Heiress?

Rumor has JK Rowling writing crime novel

(Newser) - J.K. Rowling has been spotted writing something in an Edinburgh cafe like the one where she penned the first Harry Potter book, and fellow author Ian Rankin says she's moving in on his territory—crime fiction. Rankin admits he hasn't personally talked to Rowling about her next project; it...

Murder, He Wrote: Novelist Faces Prison

Polish writer accused of gruesome death at center of his book

(Newser) - A Polish author is on trial for allegedly committing the murder upon which he based his best-selling novel. A jury is currently deliberating the case of Krystian Bala, whose grisly novel Amok fictionalized a famous unsolved murder, the Times of London reports. Prosecutors maintain that the book contains details that...

Stories 241 - 258 | << Prev