Moshe Prigan is an accomplished book collector, freelance writer, and retired teacher of art and history. He lives in Haifa, Israel but searches globally to make new acquisitions for his collection. While mainly interested in English and Italian volumes of Umberto Eco, he also collects other authors including Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Moshe has generously shared his collecting insights with us in the following interview.
During her lifetime, critics dismissed Daphne du Maurier as a lightweight romance novelist—a categorization that infuriated the bestselling author. The Christian Science Monitor said that her masterpiece, Rebecca, “would be here today, gone tomorrow.” Time has been kind to du Maurier, however; Rebecca enjoys continued popularity—voted the fifteenth “best loved novel” in a 2003 BBC survey—and du Maurier is now acknowledged as a master suspense writer.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the most highly sought literary awards in the United States. Since its inception in 1917, 86 writers have won the prize—among them, some of the nation’s greatest talents. Yet not all has gone smoothly. Here are five instances where the awarding (or withholding) of the Pulitzer has erupted in controversy.
The Double Helix, James D. Watson’s account how he and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA, is both highly acclaimed and controversial. Listed as number seven on the Modern Library’s list of the “100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century”, and one of the Library of Congress’ 88 “Books that Shaped America,” the work nearly remained unpublished due to the strong objections of Watson’s former colleagues.
Nelle Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of To Kill a Mockingbird, was born on April 28, 1926 in the sleepy town of Monroeville Alabama. As a girl, she became friends with another future writer: Truman Capote. The two were outsiders among their peers but discovered an affinity for each other. According to Capote biographer, Gerald Clarke, “Nelle was too rough for most other girls, and Truman was too soft for most other boys.”
Charlotte Brontë, the oldest of the legendary Brontë sisters, is best known for her classic novel Jane Eyre. Celebrate her birthday this week by testing your knowledge about her life and works.
The friendship between writers Washington Irving and Charles Dickens began in 1840, after the publication of Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop. Irving wrote a letter to Dickens complimenting him on the novel, and Dickens replied enthusiastically. The two continued to correspond until Dickens arrived in America in January 1842.
The two writers finally met in person when Dickens traveled to New York. At a party celebrating his visit, Dickens gave a speech in honor of his friend, Irving:
This week we honor Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein. Celebrate his birthday by testing your knowledge against these ten facts.
It is a world of sheer magic where fairies caper, pirates menace, and mermaids beguile. For visiting children, the danger of adulthood is cast away and replaced with adventures and marvels. Since its invention over a century ago, Neverland, created by Sir James Matthew Barrie in Peter Pan, has captured the imagination of children and adults alike. Although Neverland and its occupants seem entirely fanciful, Barrie was inspired by a number of true people and events.
Today we celebrate bestselling novelist John Winslow Irving. Irving is author of fourteen books and winner of the 1999 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is best known for writing The World According to Garp (1978), The Cider House Rules (1985), and A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989).
