"When has any publisher ever tried to avoid publicity for his book?"That is the tagline of Robert Fisk's article that recently appeared in the Independent.It seems that the Turkish publisher for his book "The Great War for Civilization" has decided to "undertake the publication quietly, which means there will be no press campaign for Mr Fisk's book. Thus, our request from [for] Mr Fisk is to show his support to us if any trial [is] ... held against his book. We hope that Mr Fisk and HarperCollins can understand our reservations."Why?The book includes a chapter entitled "The First Holocaust", dealing...
Communist Party Archive Goes To NYU
NYT reports that the papers of the American Communist Party have landed at NYU.Michael Nash, the director of New York University’s Tamiment Library, will announce the donation on Friday.The collection consists of 20,000 items and contains decades of party history including founding documents, secret code words, letters, smuggled directives from Moscow, photographs and as you can imagine a lots of Soviet memorabilia.Though its heyday was the 1930's the party began in 1919 as a mostly underground organization and lasted until the beginning of the cold war.Labor unions and the rights of the working class. Two elements the success of this...
Shakespeare in the City
"What Bards These Mortals Be" is the title of the Ron Barrett cartoon that appears in the Book Review section of the Sunday New York Times.A day in the life of a 21st Century Shakespeare. An amusing journey.
Books by Prescription
bib·lio·ther·a·py - the use of reading materials for help in solving personal problems or for psychiatric therapy; also : the reading materials so used.The Irish Medical Times reports that "A scheme to promote bibliotherapy as a form of medication has been launched in Ireland"Doctors and other mental health professionals will now have the option of "prescribing high quality self-help books to people with mild or moderate psychological problems."The Dublin public library system plays a major role in the process. The patient goes to one of the participating libraries and "hand their prescription in over the library counter and then receive...
Microsoft Mayhem: Poets Win the Ultimate Challenge
Welcome to Microsoft's version of The Apprentice.ideaWins:The Ultimate Challenge, a contest for small businesses.The tagline:Who has america's best small business idea.Microsoft sent a team across the country to listen to people pitch their idea. There were over 5,000 entries.The winner:The Mayhem PoetsThe deal:They get $100,000 in start up capital, a storefront in New York City for a year and of course a slew of Microsoft Products (the contest is sponsored by the Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 software group).The Mayhem Poets will open a "spoken-word performance workshop and cafe that celebrates multiculturalism through education and workshops for children of all...