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.
Ghosts of Society
Ghosts of Society
GHOSTS OF SOCIETY
There are seven of them, seven of the cleverest, brightest individuals in British society, and they call themselves “the Ghosts.” Jaded by life, suffering an ennui of the soul, they have banded together to right a few wrongs, robbing from the greedy rich and contributing the spoils to needy hospitals. But one night they snub the wrong person, a young American named Sophy Van Heldt.
Sophy finances an investigation of these seven well-meaning “Ghosts” that changes all their lives forever. Soon violence enters their world, and Lord Evelyn, their leader, is called upon to question the very meaning of his existence—by becoming a Ghost, what has he lost as a man?