Random House’s Record Profits, Teenage Photos of Famous Authors, and More

by
Bryanna Tidmarsh
3.26.13

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories:

Flavorwire highlights photos of famous authors in their teenage years, including Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, and Philip Roth. 

Actor Jim Carrey rejects mainstream publishing in favor of self-publishing his children’s book, How Roland Rolls. (The Guardian)

Executive director of Sydney Writers’ Festival Ben Strout gives the Sunday Morning Herald a sneak peek into the books that changed his life.

According to Tampa Bay Times’ Susan Thurston, Florida’s independent bookstore Inkwood Books has a new owner, saving it from rumors of closing.

Claiming that the French government is working to avoid the fate of many booksellers in the United States, French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti has announced that a fund of five million euros (approximately $6.5 million) will be available to booksellers with financial difficulties in France. (The Bookseller)

Publishers Weekly reports that Random House profits have soared 75 percent thanks to the Fifty Shades triology.

Author John Geoghegan shares with the Huffington Post the history of book vending machines, which were first manufactured in London in 1822 and can now be found around the world. 

A new translation of Proust’s poetry, The Collected Poems of Marcel Proust—which includes a number of previously unpublished poems and was edited for Penguin Classics by Harold Augenbraum, who collaborated with twenty poets and translators—has been published today. (The Daily Beast)

Happy Birthday Robert Frost! The Huffington Post celebrates with some inspiring quotes from the poet.