Communist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who died this week, has a new book coming out this spring. Publisher Little, Brown says that Hobsbawm turned in the manuscript for his final book three months ago, and that Fractured Spring will be released in March. The book is about "the history of the 'classical' arts and culture in the 19th and 20th centuries... taking in subjects as diverse as religion, manifestos and the myth of the American cowboy."
Amazon is not only publishing books, it’s now optioning them, too. The company announced on Wednesday that Amazon Studios (which we were not aware existed until this announcement) has optioned the movie rights to Ania Ahlborn’s horror novel SEED. It's not Amazon's first sign of interest in the novel: After it was self-published in 2010, SEED was released again by Amazon’s sci-fi imprint last July.
A Kansas Attorney General has blocked the sale of documents relating to the murder trial that was the basis for Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood. This week, Judge Derek Smith prevented family members of Harold Nye, one of the investigators in the 1959 murder trial, from putting fourteen boxes of documents relating to case up for auction. In his ruling, Smith noted that the papers belonged to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and “should not be auctioned off, particularly for personal gain.”
At The Los Angeles Review of Books, Tom Dibblee reconciles Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City, with Jay McInerney, professional wine critic.
New York readings tonight: Zadie Smith and Michael Chabon; an intriguing event in celebration of the brilliant comic writer Charles Portis; and David Means, author of the book Assorted Fire Events, will in conversation with fellow fiction writer Donald Antrim.
Tin House advises on how to apply to an MFA program.
