Florence Howe, who founded the Feminist Press and was a “key architect of the women’s studies movement,” died this weekend in Manhattan, at age ninety-one. “When Ms. Howe began teaching in colleges and universities in the 1950s, women’s studies was not an established academic discipline. In fact, it was rare to find a course catalog or syllabus that mentioned scholarship by women at all,” writes Bonnie Wertheim in the New York Times. “With the Feminist Press, founded in 1970, she sought to diversify the materials used in schools around the United States and beyond.”
CNN politics reporter Abby Phillip has sold The Dream Deferred, about the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s attempt to become the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, to Flatiron Books. According to the publisher, the book captures how Jackson’s “populist message and his coalition of women, young people, and people of color became the standard for future successful Democratic campaigns.”
Amazon’s best-sellers are currently: Rage by Bob Woodward, Disloyal by Michael Cohen, Compromised by Peter Strzok, The Home Edit by Clea Shearer, and Dog Man by Dav Pilkey. Pilkey’s book, according to reports, outsold every other book in North America so far this month.
Carolyn Reidy, the late president of Simon & Schuster, will receive the National Book Foundation’s 2020 Literarian Award for her lifetime achievements in publishing. “Carolyn Reidy was a singular force in the world of books, and we are forever grateful for her passion and advocacy not just for the foundation but for authors and readers everywhere,” said Lisa Lucas, the National Book Foundation’s executive director, in a press release. “It was an honor to work alongside her and see firsthand how she always brought her keen vision, business acumen and relentless compassion to everything she did.”
The Santa Fe Historic Districts Review Board has shot down Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin’s plan to build a tower on his property. The board decided that the tower—which was medieval in style, and was intended to hold the writer’s vast library—would be too tall, and would clash with the adobe, low-lying architecture of the city.
Tonight at 7 PM EST, New Yorker writer and The Rest Is Noise author Alex Ross will discuss his new book, Wagnerism, with A. O. Scott. You can register to watch here. (On Tuesday, Ross will talk with Judah Adashi, and on Wednesday with James Wood. Here is the full list of events.)