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.
Dinner at Antoine's
Dinner at Antoine's
Orson Foxworth celebrates his return to New Orleans by giving a dinner in the 1840 room at Antoines restaurant, ostensibly planned to present his niece for the Carnival festivities and to renew his romance with Amelie Lalande. Laland's daughter Odile, accidently spills a red wine down her white dress, a seemingly light incident. However, it is recalled thirty hours later when she is found dead with a strange pistol and an ambiguous note on the floor beside her. Though looking like suicide the plot revolves out of proving otherwise. Infused with much history, customs, and mores of New Orleans of the 1940's. With a new introduction by Patricia Brady setting the history, context of the novel, and with biographical notes on Keyes.