Dan Brown mum on details of new novel—even to the director and star that have made him a box office success.

Robert Frost’s Illinois family farm up for sale.

Houston Press presents an excellent slide show of albums based on literary works.

Louisiana governor finally makes Darrell Bourque the official state poet laureate.

Will BookScan take on e-book sales reporting?

Less than one in five Brits can recite an entire poem and nearly half can’t name a single living poet, according to a British survey.

Sarah Palin’s “collaborator” (don’t call her a “ghost writer”) revealed. Jezebel has the low-down.

Jon Stock discusses how he wrote Dead Spy Running on the 8:40 from Bedwyn to London Paddington.

Nine-year-old Spanish prodigy publishes a fantasy novel.

Knifeman channels The Shining’s Jack Torrance after luring paramedics to his home.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1967, poet Langston Hughes died at the age of sixty-five.

“You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.”

-Isaac Asimov

.

.

You know you know someone who needs this book - TREK CLASSIC: THE UNOFFICIAL MAKING OF THE ORIGINAL SERIES, by Edward Goss.

Library Journal singles out STORMY WEATHER: THE LIFE OF LENA HORNE, by James Gavin, as their spotlight feature.

Tom Rob Smith gets cuffed about the ears over his new novel, THE SECRET SPEECH.

The Washinton Times lingers over Allen C. Guelzo’s LINCOLN: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION.

BBC Poetry Season rolls on with a unique rendition of William Blake’s “Jerusalem”:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.

Syrian writer Michel Kilo released from prison after serving three years for “weakening national morale.” His crime? Signing a document calling for the mending of relations between Syria and Lebanon.

The Hay Festival opens today, so if you’re planning to be in Wales, head on over. For the rest of us, they have an official website.

Critics tell Scholastic to keep the books coming but get rid of the junk.

Scott Timberg, writing for The Guardian Book Blog, explores how Ursula Le Guin “led a generation away from realism.”

Gawker punches a hole in Larry King’s memoir memory.

China poised to become not only a huge source of new literature, but also a huge market for Western books. Interesting states: a single Chinese literary website, Shengda, has published online novels by 200,000 Chinese writers and last year alone and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road sold 200,000 copies in China (presumably not to the same aforementioned writers…)

R.I.P. David Herbert Donald

Today in Literature: On this day in 1688, Alexander Pope was born in London.

“Tension is wonderful for making people laugh.”

-John Cleese

.

.

.

The Hardvard Business Review thinks Jim Collins’, HOW THE MIGHTY FALL… AND WHY SOME COMPANIES NEVER GIVE IN, is worth a look, but not too thorough a look.

GONE TOMORROW gives Lee Child fans what they keep coming back for: twists, catches, and satisfaction by the time you reach the back cover.

Dave Wood’s Book Report is up and ready.  Catch him if you can.

Monsters & Critics tells parents and teens to read Jo Schofield and Fiona Danke’s activity guide, GO WILD!

In a move that has the literary blogosphere buzzing, Amazon has launched a program that allows blogs to offer subscriptions on the Kindle. It’s yet to be determined if there will be any real demand for a paid subscription service to blogs that are available for free on the web and via RSS feeds, and there’s also  the requisite controversy over revenue-sharing (Amazon takes 70% while bloggers get 30).

Regardless, there has been a mad rush to get signed up (Literary Saloon has a list of literary blogs already up and running), and AuthorScoop is no exception.

So if you’re a Kindle owner, and you’d like to have AuthorScoop at your digital fingertips, visit our Amazon Marketplace page and sign up. If we end up getting rich off your 60 cents a month, you can say you knew us when…

Another excellent video from the BBC Poetry Season series—The King Blues take on Byron’s “So We’ll Go No More a-Roving”:

So, we’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.

As we reported last August, a federal appeals court reversed a 2006 decision that John Steinbeck’s son and grandaughter be granted rights to ten of the author’s novels, including the classics The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

The heirs, Thomas Steinbeck and Blake Smyle, had hoped the United States Supreme Court would intervene, but the court announced on Monday that it would not hear the case. Mr. Steinbeck reacted in a press release:

“At stake is far more than our own situation - the Supreme Court could have protected all the authors and artists in America from a future of intellectual bondage to big corporate publishers. The publishers, like slave-owners characterized by Abraham Lincoln, want to command writers, ‘You grow the grain, you make the bread, and we’ll eat it.’

“The pettifogging machinations of my late step-mother’s lawyers do not mean that the Second Circuit was correct, it only means that the Supreme Court chose not to hear us at this time.”

“If artists and their families cannot protect their rights, then everyone will ultimately suffer.”

Steinbeck “vows to continue to seek proper delegation of his father’s legacy and to press forward on behalf of the families of other authors similarly situated to his position.”

Salinger’s lawyers are on the case regarding John David California’s unauthorized The Catcher in the Rye sequel.

“On-demand” books topped traditional book releases in 2008 for the first time ever. Is it the economy of a sea change in the publishing model?

Bret Easton Ellis moves into the screenwriting business with The Roseblood Movie Co. financing and producing an as-of-yet untitled film directed by Brad Furman.

Hyperion dives into the online publishing world with its “e-imprint” Kernl.

Internet Archive co-founder Brewster Kahle writes in a Washington Post op-ed that the Google Books settlement “provides a new and unsettling form of media consolidation.”

R.I.P. Leonard Shlain

R.I.P. Elsie B. Washington

Today in Literature: On this day in 1937, W.H. Auden’s Spain was published, with proceeds supporting the anti-Franco Medical Aid Committee. Ironically, on the very same day, George Orwell was shot in the throat while fighting for the same cause.

“Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman’s name out of a satire then wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to a writer - and if so, why?”

-Bennett Cerf

.

THE BACKYARD HOMESTEADER, by Carleen Madigan, makes getting up to the elbows in The Old Fashioned way look colorful enough.

Fun for adults and YA alike, MOST EXCELLENT YEAR, by Steve Kluger gets a warm welcome in Wausau.

ONE MAN’S MUSIC recalls the reinvention of singer-songwriter Vince Bell, after a nearly fatal encounter with a joyriding kid.

23 American writers dish on why they think LOVE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD.

Blur bassist Alex James discusses his introduction to the poetry of W.H. Auden:

As a bonus, here’s the video for Blur’s “Tender”:

Captain Richard Phillips, who surrendered himself to pirates to save his crew on the Maersk Alabama, gets his inevitable book deal.

The Guardian Book Blog’s Lisa Kjellsson explores what defines “the most famous fictional character.”

Ken Kesey’s mother, Geneva, shares her memories through the wonderful StoryCorps oral history program.

Terry Pratchett calls for more memory clinics to provide diagnosis and treatment for UK Alzheimer’s patients.

Bookslut’s Blog takes its Indie Heartthrob interview series to Brooklyn’s Word bookstore and chats it up with owner Christine Onorati and manager Stephanie Anderson.

Diane di Prima has been named San Francisco’s fifth poet laureate.

Scribd makes its play for a share of the e-book market.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1795, longtime confidante of Samuel Johnson and notorious literary packrat James Boswell died at the age of fifty-four.

“Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”

-Alfred Hitchcock

.

.

.

Get the low-down on what really happened with Bonnie and Clyde.  GO DOWN TOGETHER, by Jeff Guinn, will strip the chrome off the Hollywood version of the story, but will leave you will a help of fascinating sense in its place.

It’s always a handy thing, this list of new fiction from Publishers Weekly.

The Christian Science Monitor reprints its glowing review of Brian Hall’s, I SHOULD BE EXTREMELY HAPPY IN YOUR COMPANY: A NOVEL OF LEWIS AND CLARK.

D.D. Guttenplan gives us the scoop on journalist Izzy Stone, in AMERICAN RADICAL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF I.F. STONE.

From the YouTube description:

Robin Blaser emerged from the Berkeley Renaissance of the 1940s and 50s along with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, and later established himself as one of Canadas foremost experimental poets. In addition to numerous works of poetry, criticism, and translation, Blaser has also penned an English and Latin opera libretto entitled The Last Supper in collaboration with Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

Charles Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter, Ruth Padel, has been elected Oxford University’s professor of poetry, making her the first female to hold the position in its 301 year history.

Are e-books too expensive… and too ugly?

Robert McCrum presents five myths on the end of literary culture.

Where hoaxes go to die: Fake Holocaust memoir repackaged as fiction by marketing consultant.

A Journey Round My Skull gets to the crux of the true value of verse by ranking poets by beard weight.

R.I.P. Mario Benedetti

R.I.P. Robin Blaser

Today in Literature: On this day in 1593, a warrant was issued for the arrest of twenty-nine-year-old Christopher Marlowe on charges of spreading “blasphemous and damnable opinions”; he was killed by a dagger through the eye on the day before he was to appear in court.

“Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.”

-Jules Renard

.

.

.