Revived Writers
Fairly often a well-deserving writer is rediscovered by readers, publishers, or reviewers/critics. The neglected books are brought back into print, retrospective appreciations are written (Dawn Powell) or a sudden rush of affection overwhelms the writer late in life (Barbara Pym). Sometimes the writer’s works are whacked with the magic wand of Hollywood, and the writer becomes much more famous and widely read than in his or her mortality (Philip K. Dick).
Recently I was struck by the handsome editions that a British publisher, Hodder Books, brought out for Pamela Hansford Johnson’s novels. Johnson (1912-1981, CBE, FRSL) was a prolific and multi-talented writer who was the guest of many universities in the US and celebrated in her day. Her second husband, C.P. Snow, had an even higher profile as a writer bridging the sciences and the humanities and wrote successfully and abundantly, including an epic 11-volume series, Strangers and Brothers. Johnson is now back in print. Snow is out of print entirely in the US. Publishers — and booksellers — are mysterious in their giving and taking away. It pays to stay alert to what is revived.
On this page, beginning in the pandemic days of Spring 2020, we will hunt around for revived fiction and its writers. We begin with Johnson. I look forward to listing other authors I carry: Nancy Mitford, Georgette Heyer, Eugenia Price, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and others. (Why are all the names I am thinking of women writers? No idea.)
Enjoy! Experiment! And come back to check on new listings.
Amy Levy Collected Writings
Amy Levy Collected Writings
Amy Levy’s writings belong to a tradition in Jewish literature characteristic of the modern Diaspora. This marginalized literature was formulated in the context of the Haskalah and the rise of Zionism and political emancipation. Levy’s writing, expressed in the vernacular beyond the typical Yiddish and Hebrew, was further influenced by her national context of imperialism, social Darwinism, and insidious antisemitism.
Her novels, short stories, poetry, and essays thus reflect not only Levy’s sense of being Jewish, but also her struggle with hegemonic Christianity, antisemitism, and nationalist social, political, and literary cultures. In placing this collection – which includes many texts that will be new not only to readers but also to scholars interested in Levy’s life – in its diasporic, modern, and late-Victorian context, we continue the process of piecing together and further understanding Levy’s biography and her complex relationship with her Jewish identity and Jewish history, with biblical and literary traditions, and with Anglo-Jewish communal politics.
In addition to reinspiring interest in Levy, her multi-layered writings, and her incisive sense of humour, Collected Writings aims to provide something that Levy perhaps never enjoyed in her own lifetime: a sense of belonging to a tradition of modern Jewish literature.