October 30, 2008 10:40 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: J K Rowling
It feels bizarre that we have never mentioned J K Rowling before as a trailblazer, but that is maybe because she never seems to be out of the headlines. Even now, with Harry Potter finished, she is still newsworthy because of The Tales of Beedle the Bard which is coming out soon.
However, now the fuss over her has died down slightly I thought now might be a good time. I probably can't tell you much that you don't already know, but we have to commemorate this woman who has got millions of children (and not to mention adults) all over the world wanting to read.
Jo Rowling (there is no middle name, the K stands for Kathleen which is her paternal grandmother's name) studied at the University of Exeter where she gained a degree in French. She really wanted to study English but felt French was more useful. She then went on to work for Amnesty International in London, before deciding to more up north to Manchester.
It was on a train journey back from Manchester to London after a flat hunting expedition that the idea of Harry Potter fell into her lap. She had no pen and paper so allowed herself to daydream about him for hours. As soon as she arrived home she began to write Philosopher's Stone. But then, tragically in 1990, her mother died. This was to have a huge impact on Harry's story.
Nine months after her mum died she moved to Portugal, taking her precious manuscript with her, thinking she might have finished it by the time she arrived back to the UK. But instead she came back in 1994 with a daughter. Moving to Edinburgh she decided it was now or never and wrote when her daughter was asleep and in the evenings.
Eventually she sent the manuscript off. The first agent replied immediately, rejecting it. The second liked it, but it took a year of rejections until they found a publisher. When she did her advance was £1500.
Thursday Trailblazer Archives
Posted by Helen Redfern on October 30, 2008 in Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 31, 2008 10:33 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Beatrix Potter
This week marks the birthday of Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866), so I thought I'd take a look at the woman who has had such a big impact on children's lives.
Born Helen Beatrix Potter in Kensington, London, to parents that were rich thanks to an inheritance from the cotton trade, Beatrix had a lonely childhood. Her brother, six years her junior, was sent away to boarding school, whilst she was educated by a series of governesses, until she was an adult and became the household supervisor.
The family took holidays in Perthshire and the Lake District, where Beatrix, with her brother, would continue to study and draw the local wildlife. She grew to be a keen conservationist and naturalist, writing a paper called "On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae" (gilled funghi) that was rejected by the Linnean Society - as she was both an amateur and a woman.
So Beatrix concentrated her talents on drawing and stories. She wrote letters to the children of her governess. One of them was a story that she later went on to develop and call Peter Rabbit. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was finally published in her 30's after a few years of trying and also self publishing it for a while. She then went on to publish a total of twenty three children's books. All of them little handheld tales about animals.
In her private life she became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, who tragically died before they could marry. She later went on to marry a solicitor called William Heelis. The books allowed her to become financially independent of her parents and she bought property in the Lake District, which she went on to leave to The National Trust in her will. This generous act helped ensure the Lake District remained unspoiled from development.
Miss Potter is being shown on BBC1 in the UK on Sunday 3 August at 8pm.
Posted by Helen Redfern on July 31, 2008 in British Authors, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 3, 2008 1:29 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Alice Walker
Alice Walker describes herself as an author, a feminist and a womanist, a term she started because "black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression than did white women". Born in Georgia in 1944, Alice went on to become an active member of the Civil Rights Movement. Her books focus on African American women and their difficulties in a society that was racist, sexist and often violent.
Although she had a book of poetry published whilst a senior, her first novel wasn't published until 1970, entitled The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Her second was semi-autobiographical in that it focused on activist movements in the South. This was Meridian and was published in 1976.
Her most famous novel is The Color Purple which was published in 1982. Telling the story of Celie, we see how she fights her way in life against racism within the wider society and sexism within her own culture. The book was adapted into a film and more recently into a play. Alice also won a Pulitzer Prize for it.
Bibliography (short stories and novels - she also has a collection of poetry and non-fictional works)
The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)
Everyday Use (1973)
In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973)
Roselily (1973)
Meridian
The Color Purple (1982)
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories (1982)
Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self (1983)
Am I Blue? (1986)
To Hell With Dying (1988)
The Temple
Finding the Green Stone (1991)
Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
The Complete Stories (1994)
By The Light of My Father's Smile (1998)
The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000)
Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart (2005)
Posted by Helen Redfern on July 3, 2008 in American Authors, Classic Novels, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (7)
June 26, 2008 2:06 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Doris Lessing
Goodness, there is so much information on Doris Lessing swimming about I'm having a hard time condensing it.
Doris was born in Persia (now Iran) in 1919 to British parents. When she was six they moved to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Her mother and father are the subject of her latest novel Alfred & Emily. Apparently her mother had rigid regimes and rules and was determined to bring her daughter up the "proper" way.
At thirteen Doris dropped out of school and self educated herself by ordering parcels of books from London. From the age of fifteen she became a nursemaid and wrote stories, two of which she managed to sell to magazines in South Africa.
Her experiences in Africa is portrayed in her fiction. She has written about culture clashes, racial inequality and individual struggles. In 1949 she moved to London and her first novel The Grass is Singing was published. Since then she has had a huge amount of books published (I counted fifty titles) including her latest, Alfred & Emily.
She has won or been shortlisted for countless awards including the Booker Prize for Fiction. Then in 2007 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is the eleventh woman to have won it in 106 years. She is also the oldest person to have won it.
Her bibliography is huge but can be found here.
Posted by Helen Redfern on June 26, 2008 in British Authors, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (2)
June 12, 2008 1:58 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Sarah Waters
Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith and The Night Watch, has won an array of awards including South Bank Award for Literature, Author of the Year at the British Book Awards, the Betty Trask Award and she has also been shortlisted for the Booker and Orange Prize.
She was inspired to write her debut novel whilst working on her PhD thesis researching lesbian historical fiction. Tipping the Velvet was the result and is a book set in nineteenth century Britain. She is extremely research intensive for all of her books and for this one in particular she studied nineteenth century pornography. The Daily Telegraph praised this novel and said, "This could be the most important debut of its kind..." In 2002 the BBC adapted it into a TV drama.
All her books have lesbian themes which she describes in an interview as "at the heart of her books" and also "incidental" as it is just because of her own sexual orientation. She goes on to say it makes sense to call herself a lesbian writer (or even a historical writer), but at the same time she is just a writer. Saying this, it makes no difference as her novels are praised the world over (they have been translated into at least twenty four languages) by the mainstream and the gay and lesbian press alike.
Thursday Trailblazer archive
Posted by Helen Redfern on June 12, 2008 in Book related, British Authors, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 5, 2008 10:20 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Maeve Binchy
Since picking up a battered copy of Light a Penny Candle as a teenager, I have been a huge fan of Maeve Binchy. I don't know if it was the gentle way in which she wrote, the fascinating characters or just her ability to write a gripping story that had me hooked, but it wasn't until I started to research her for this post that I realised how phenomenally successful Maeve is.
Described in the Irish Independent as "the mammy of all the best selling chick lit writers", Maeve was 43 when her first novel Light a Penny Candle was published in 1983. Born in Dublin in 1940, she worked as a teacher, then travelled to Israel to work on a kibbutz. Whilst out there she frequently wrote home and it was one of these letters that her Dad managed to sell to the Irish Times. She went on to become an extremely popular columnist for them.
After moving to London to be a journalist, she had several short story collections published including Central Line and Victoria Line. Then in 1983 her hard work (she started writing at 5am in the morning before going on to her full time job) paid off. She sold her first novel for a reported £52,000, the biggest sum at the time for a first time novel.
Maeve has sold around £50m books in nearly 40 countries. An amazing figure. She writes about her own experiences of time and place with her writing style alternating between the story of one woman, a pair of friends or a group of interlocking stories. Her main characters are predominantly female and deal with the changing problems of Irish women.
In 1995 Circle of Friends was made into a film with Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell. In 1999, Tara Road was picked up by Oprah's Book Club. Her secret to success? She writes as if she is talking. She insists she doesn't have a style but just chats away on the page.
Bibliography
Along with her numerous short stories the following novels have been published:
Light a Penny Candle
The Lilac Bus
Echoes
Firefly Summer
Silver Wedding
Circle of Friends
The Copper Beach
Glass Lake
Evening Class
Tara Road
Scarlet Feather
Quentins
Nights of Rain and Stars
Whitethorn Woods
The Maeve Binchy Writer's Club (not a novel but an excellent book on writing)
Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archives
Posted by Helen Redfern on June 5, 2008 in Book related, Irish Authors, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (3)
April 17, 2008 10:56 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Stella Gibbons
Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm often appears on top ten lists and it also features in my teetering to-be-read pile.
It's a parody of the pessimisitic rural novel (typified by Thomas Hardy), and features a feisty, melodramatic family called the Starkadders. It was made into a film (for TV) in both 1968 and1995. The later version was adapted by Malcolm Bradbury and starred Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen.
Stella was born in 1902 and had a turbulent upbringing. Her father, Telford, was a doctor but also a drunk, depressive, and given to violent outbursts and dramatic scenes. When she was eleven her father threatened to commit suicide, begging the young Stella to stop him. She would later put this (and much else) into her autobiographical novel Enderbury Heath.
Stella completed a diploma in Journalism at London University, wrote prose parodies and published poetry. Her first job was with a news service called the British United Press and then with the London Evening Standard.
In 1930, she started at the Lady magazine where she reportedly wrote Cold Comfort Farm in spare quiet moments and on the train to and from work. She had already published a poetry collection, The Mountain Beast, and counted Virginia Woolf as an admirer. She also met her future husband - actor and opera singer Allan Bourne Webb - whom she married in 1933. They had a daughter together, Laura.
The success of Cold Comfort Farm prompted her to leave the Lady and write full time. Something she continued throughout the rest of her life.
She published her last novel in 1970 but continued to write for her own pleasure. When she died, in 1989, Stella bequethed her unpublished work, including two more novels, to her grandsons.
Partial Bibliography
The Mountain Beast (poetry)
Cold Comfort Farm
The Priestess (poetry)
Endbury Heath
The Untidy Gnome
Miss Linsey and Pa
Roaring Tower and Other Stories (short stories)
The Lowland Venus (poetry)
Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm (short stories)
The Bachelor
Westwood
The Matchmaker
Conference at Cold Comfort Farm
Beside the Pearly Water (short stories)
The Charmers
Starlight
The Snow Woman
The Woods in Winter
Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archives
Posted by Sarah Painter on April 17, 2008 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 13, 2008 12:08 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Grace Metalious
Born in 1924, Grace is most famous for writing Peyton Place (1956). The book sold millions worldwide and remained on the New York Times bestseller list. It was also made into a successful film starring Lana Turner and Lee Philips.
Peyton Place explores the dark secrets of the residents of a small New England town, and was denounced by critics as 'trash'.
She went on to write a further three novels, although none (unsuprisingly) enjoyed the same level of success.
Grace was criticised in the day for writing a racy, popular book - sound at all familar? In reply, she famously said, "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste."
Grace was born in New Hampshire into a poor family with an absent father, but began writing at a young age. She married in her teens and became a housewife and mother, but despite financial hardship, never stopped writing.
Sadly, she died of alcholism in 1964.
Bibliography:
Peyton Place
Return to Peyton Place
The Tight White Collar
No Adam in Eden
Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archive
Posted by Sarah Painter on March 13, 2008 in American Authors, Book related, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (2)
February 7, 2008 4:08 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Erica Jong
Erica Jong wowed the literary scene with her debut novel, Fear of Flying, in 1973. With a strong female protagonist - the unforgettable Isadora Wing - and frank, relationship-centred content, there is no doubt that published today, it would've had a pink cover...
Henry Miller said: "This book will make literary history...because of it women are going to find their own voice and give us great sagas of sex, life, joy and adventure."
I remember reading Fear Of Flying as a teenager and being blown away by Isadora. Yes, she was confused and filled with internal struggle, but she was smart and funny, too. She was striving for balance in her life, and for a way to get what she wanted and needed (both in her relationships and creative work) - and she didn't apologise for her sexuality.
Erica followed Fear of Flying with How To Save Your Own Life (which picks up Isadora's story three years later), six other novels, poetry, a chidren's book, a memoir and non-fiction work on Henry Miller, Witches, feminism and writing.
Erica is a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University, where she studied 18th Century English Literature. She also attended Columbia's graduate writing program. She has taught literature and writing all over the world.
Erica has been married four times. Her third marriage (to the novelist Jonathan Fast) produced a daughter, Molly Jong-Fast (who is also a novelist).
Novels:
Fear of Flying
How to Save Your Own Life
Fanny, Being the True History of Fanny Hackabout-Jones
Parachutes & Kisses
Sylock's Daughter (formerly titled Serenissima)
Any Woman's Blues
Inventing Memory
Sappho's Leap
Related posts: Best women authors of all time | Chick lit is a feminist issue
Posted by Sarah Painter on February 7, 2008 in American Authors, Book related, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
January 3, 2008 5:48 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Mary Stewart
I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting (romantic suspense in an beautiful setting) so I thought I'd find out a bit more about the author.
Author of twenty novels, a volume of poetry and three books for children, Mary Stewart has been named as one of the founders of the romantic suspense genre.
And it's a good thing I said a 'bit more' as I wasn't very successful on hunting down many biographical details.
Mary Stewart was born in 1916 in County Durham, England, but she has lived in Scotland for many years.
She was a lecturer in English Language and Literature at Durham University until her marriage to Sir Frederick Stewart.
In addition to her romantic suspense novels (which were set in stunning locations in Scotland, the Greek islands, Spain, France and Austria), Mary wrote a series of novels based on Authurian legend. The books were a mix of historical and fantasy fiction and focused on Merlin.
Select bibliography:
The Merlin Series:
The Crystal Cave (1970)
The Hollow Hills (1973)
The Last Enchantment (1979)
The Wicked Day (1983)
The Prince and the Pilgrim (1995)
Other novels:
Madam, Will You Talk?
Nine Coaches Waiting
My Brother Michael
The Ivy Tree
The Moon-Spinners
This Rough Magic
Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archive
Posted by Sarah Painter on January 3, 2008 in British Authors, Crime / Mystery, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (5)
December 20, 2007 10:08 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Martha Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn is considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.
Born in 1908, Gellhorn was ahead of her time. While women's rights were being fought, and the idea of a female journalist - let alone a female war reporter - was unusual to say the least, Gellhorn forged an admirable career that spans sixty-years.
In addition to extensive journalism, Gellhorn published novels,novellas, short stories, and collections of her travel writing.
She was the third wife of Ernest Hemingway, although when Hemingway sent her a telegram: 'Are you a war correspondent or my wife in bed?' She cut the ties between them and carried on with her adventures.
Aged 81, Gellhorn travelled to Panama to write about the US invasion. Aged 89, suffering from cancer and almost blind, Martha commited suicide with poison. In death, as in life, she commanded things on her own terms.
For more on Gellhorn's extraordinary life, I recommend Caroline Moorehead's marvellous biography.
Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archive
Posted by Sarah Painter on December 20, 2007 in American Authors, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (2)
December 6, 2007 2:29 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott is probably best known for Little Women, her semi-autobiographical novel. Jo March, the heroine of the story, has captured generations of hearts and minds with her feisty, strong personality.
Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May spent their childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts.
Like Jo March, young Louisa was a tomboy. She also loved reading, writing and putting on plays with her sisters.
The family were poor, and Louisa took a series of different jobs to help out. She continued writing, though, and when she was just 22, her first book Flower Fables was published.
As well as the extremely popular Little Women, with its follow-ups, Good Wives, Good Men and Jo's Boys, Louisa wrote racy 'pot-boilers' under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard. I had no idea!
I also didn't realise that Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories in her lifetime. Louisa died from mercury-poisoning (she had been exposed during her nursing service in the American Civil War) aged 55.
Did you know? Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. She supported women's suffrage and was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts.
The Alcott's family home, Orchard House, is open for guided tours. Or you can take a virtual look around.
Posted by Sarah Painter on December 6, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
July 26, 2007 12:08 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Truman Capote
Y
es, I know he's not a woman! But he's still a Trailblazer, and he created Holly Golightly so even though he was WRONG about Audrey Hepburn (he hated her as Holly and wanted Marilyn Monroe in the part) I forgive him.
The author of Breakfast at Tiffany's of course, he also wrote other novels, short stories, plays and a musical but his best work is probably In Cold Blood, the meticulously-researched (sometimes a bit too closely, perhaps!) work of 'faction', which inspired hundreds of writers to turn their pens to narrative non-fiction. The book is compelling, stark, brutal and perfectly evocative of the horrible murders it describes. It lives with the reader for a long time.
On a lighter note, Capote was a legendarily fabulous party host and gossip, and lifelong friend of Harper Lee, who used him as the basis for the character of Dill Harris in To Kill A Mockingbird. He was also openly gay in an era were being honest about homosexuality was much rarer than it is today.
Unfortunately in his later years, Truman descended into depression and alcoholism, dying at just 59, but his great works live on.
Thursday Trailblazer archives.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on July 26, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Modern Fiction, Non Fiction, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
July 19, 2007 11:57 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is one of the American greats. Her first book of autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings presents a vivid, shocking but also hopeful portrait of life as a black girl in the American deep South of the 1930s. Her five other works of memoir are just as compelling.
The author of many books including some wonderful poetry, Angelou is a distinguished literary professor and was chosen to be Bill Clinton's inauguration poet, only the second poet ever to read at a President's inauguration. She's been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and The National Book Award and is great pals with and mentor to Oprah Winfrey. She's even won a Grammy! (For a spoken-word album of her poetry, but still...)
She has to be one of the best examples of someone overcoming great obstacles to achieve her dreams: abandoned at a young age by her parents, she was later sexually abused and became mute for several years after the man who raped her was beaten to death. She spent time homeless, became a single mother at 16 and worked as a singer, a prostitute and a madam as she tried to support herself and her son. Her life was never straightforward, but her optimism was rewarded with the publication of Caged Bird in 1969.
[Image: Santa Clara University; some addictional info from Wikipedia]
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on July 19, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Memoirs, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
July 12, 2007 9:25 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Helen Fielding
Of course. Couldn't really leave her out seeing as she started all this chick lit lark! (Maybe).
Whether you think Helen Fielding, Jane Austen, Nora Ephron, Gail Parent or even Janet Evanovich invented the genre, what's pretty clear is that Helen Fielding helped make it what it is today. Her newspaper columns detailing the life and loves of one Miss Bridget Jones made both her and Bridge cultural icons and had publishers on both sides of the pond jumping on the chick lit bandwagon. It has to be the best-known and most-loved chick lit novel of all time, ever. (And it's the number one choice for fave chick lit novel in our author interviews!)
Fielding's inspired lots of modern-day writers and even many years later her best-known book is still a touching and brilliantly witty read. Bridget Jones's Diary is everything a chick lit book should be: funny, satirical and entertaining with a main character we can relate to.
And that's what makes Helen Fielding a Trailblazer.
Thursday Trailblazer archives.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on July 12, 2007 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Modern Fiction, Opinion, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
July 5, 2007 3:23 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Jackie Collins
Bit of a departure this week because Diane's laid up with a migraine so I'm subbing for her!
We haven't featured Jackie Collins much here at Trashionista and we really should. Drop Dead Beautiful is her 25th book and she's got 400 million books in print worldwide. I haven't read any for a long time, I must admit, but she's a member of the elite club of books-I-read-in-one-sitting, which I'm sure she's just thrilled about. Anyway, here's Jackie on Wall Street Journal online talking about why she's just so marvellous.
[via Galleycat]
Posted by Keris on July 5, 2007 in Book News, Book related, British Authors, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 28, 2007 1:28 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Dodie Smith
I've been meaning to "do" Dodie for some time, and as it's cult classic week on Trashionista, what better time to honour the author of one of the first, and most fabulous YA/crossover novels: I Capture The Castle. A favourite of many modern authors (as Rachel Johnson will testify), ICTC is the charming, funny and sometimes emotionally raw tale of Cassandra, a romantic 17-year old who can't wait for her first love... but who finds things don't always work out the way you expect.
Of course it's The Hundred and One Dalmatians for which Dodie became famous (and she apparently got very cross if people spelt 'dalmatian' wrongly so I checked I'd got it right!) but she yearned to be a more 'serious' writer than her best-known works would suggest. She was a huge fan of Henry James and championed many modern novelists she admired, among them a young Julian Barnes. Smith also wrote plays (best known is Dear Octopus) and was passionate about the theatre. But her talent was for more lighthearted (but very well-constructed) fiction - and there's nothing wrong with that!
In her personal life, she was a survivor: a bit of a loner, she would escape to her school's library and find company in books. Orphaned by the age of 18, she struggled at first to support herself, but clearly she survived in the end, although struggled for money in her later years, after the death of her husband Alec Beesley with whom she had a very loving (if, it is thought, purely platonic) relationship for many years.
Read this: I Capture The Castle. Plus, if you're interested in learning more about this unconventional and opinionated writer, I highly recommend Valerie Grove's wonderfully entertaining biography Dear Dodie, which is easy-to-read yet very well researched.
[Picture via BBC]
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on June 28, 2007 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Cult classic week, Thursday Trailblazer, Young Adult | Permalink | Comments (3)
June 21, 2007 7:25 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: You tell us!
Yep, call it a cop-out or call it (more accurately of course) gauging mass opinion, this week I'm asking you, the reader to tell us: who's your favourite Trailblazer? By Trailblazer, we mean someone who did something new and exciting, left their mark on the literary world. I've got lots of ideas for future weeks but this week, I want to hear from you.
It could be a chick lit author, a "classics" type, or even a man(!)... or it could be someone we've already featured (scroll down to see them all). It could even be a few people!
Tell us who your Trailblazer is...
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on June 21, 2007 in Book related, Opinion, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (7)
June 14, 2007 5:30 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Judy Blume
Continuing with both the Judy Blume theme and the kids's writers theme of the last week or so, it's about time we honoured Judy Blume as a true Trailblazer. A revolutionary author for children and teenagers, Blume began tackling subjects no-one wants to talk to their parents about as far back as the early 1970s.
Taking on such taboos as religion, periods, masturbation, sex, bullying and even the Holocaust, Blume had all teenagers' concerns covered and managed to write books which covered serious topics in a reassuring way whilst making the plot and characters more important than the 'message'.
Her iconic book Forever, an honest (somewhat explicit) novel about a couple's first sexual relationship, taught generations of girls and boys what to expect from their 'first time' without either scaring kids off or glorifying sex... quite a feat. Her books are well-written and always go beyond the topics they cover to create realistic people with feelings young adults can relate to. It's that, rather than any sensational reading material, that keeps generations coming back to Blume.
Unfortunately, some adults can't see beyond depictions of subjects they're uncomfortable with, and Blume's books are often banned from school and even public libraries. But her readers appreciate her, as do The National Book award people: in 2004 they gave her Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on June 14, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Girly Stuff, Thursday Trailblazer, Young Adult | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 7, 2007 4:42 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Nora Ephron
Back in the early '80s, before anyone else thought to put together food-themed semi-fictional novels, Nora Ephron brought out the irresistible Heartburn, about a betrayed pregnant wife who cooks to stay sane. It's very funny, even over twenty years later.
Nora was always something of a pioneer: she was an early feminist and wrote on this and other hard-hitting topics for Esquire magazine as well as writing lighter articles on a range of subjects, which later were turned into essay collections including Crazy Salad and Scribble, Scribble.
She's also fiercely funny and clever, the screenwriter of my favourite film When Harry Met Sally, mother of two boys, an excellent non-fiction writer and blogger and a big player in Hollywood. What more could you ask for in a Trailblazer?
Read this: Heartburn.
Watch this: When Harry Met Sally.
Don't mention this: Bewitched.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on June 7, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Debut Novels, Modern Fiction, Non Fiction, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 24, 2007 10:16 AM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Bernice Rubens
Bernice Rubens was a class act, even if the same couldn't always be said for her characters! (See the suicidal woman whose life is turned around by her diary in A Five Year Sentence for an example).
Rubens died in 2004, aged 76, having just completed her autobiography (great timing! - see, classy). Like Marian Keyes, she began writing at the age of 30 (having worked as a teacher and then a film-maker first) but then threw herself into it, writing twenty four novels plus her memoir, When I Grow Up. She won the Booker Prize in 1970 for her book The Elected Member, which established her as one of the best writers of her generation.
She was simply a great writer, with the capacity to create memorable if often odd characters and fascinating scenarios. She was also rather opinionated, laying into Martin Amis for writing a novel about the Holocaust that she found inappropriate. She described her writing as "Better than most, not as good as some." And she was probably right.
Read this: Madame Sousatzka (which appears to be shamefully out of print).
SUGGEST A TRAILBLAZER! Who would you like to see here next Thursday? Leave a comment and let us know - or if you're shy email us instead.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on May 24, 2007 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Memoirs, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (3)
May 17, 2007 4:37 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Lorrie Moore
This week's Trailblazer is a real personal favourite. J'adore Lorrie Moore.
Lorrie Moore was writing intelligent, witty, poignant and insightful short stories (and one novel) about life, love and relationships as far back as the early '80s She satirised things like America's self-help culture before most of us even knew it existed. She's smart, savvy, always ahead of the curve - and a brilliant writer, too. If I could write like anyone, it would be Lorrie Moore. (She's one of Nick Hornby's favourites too, so I'm in good company).
Moore's first book, the story collection Self-Help, was published when she was twenty-six. As well as her books, she has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and in the anthology The Best American Short Stories. She now teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which may be why she hasn't published a book for nine years (since Birds of America) - a situation I hope is remedied soon.
Read this: Self-Help, or Who Will Run The Frog Hospital?
What do you think - and who's your favourite trailblazer?
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on May 17, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Modern Fiction, Short Story Collections, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 10, 2007 2:50 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy survived a tough early life to become a successful writer: she was orphaned age six and raised by her paternal grandparents, who were abusive. She was later taken in by her mother's parents, and had a happier time with them, crediting her grandfather with the shaping of her liberal political beliefs. Highly educated (at Vassar) and an atheist (after casting off her Catholic heritage) she had a sharp mind, and a lot of opinions: so becoming a critic was her ideal job and she wrote for a range of publications including Partisan Review.
But she is best known for her books, especially her ground-breaking novel The Group, which follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates and which Cosmo called "Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant." (A chick lit precursor, perhaps?)
Like Dorothy Parker, McCarthy's fiction often had an autobiographical slant, and she indeed wrote a book of memoir: Memories of a Catholic Girlhood.
Fascinated by McCarthy's legendary literary feud with her rival writer Lillian Hellman (said McCarthy once, "Every word that woman writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."), Nora Ephron wrote a play, Imaginary Friends about the pair.
Like Ephron, McCarthy married multiple times: four, in fact. She died in 1989. [Some additional info via Wikipedia.org and Amazon.com]
Read this: The Group
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on May 10, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
May 3, 2007 6:29 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch has become best known now for her descent into Alzheimer's disease and the portrayal of her by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in the 2002 film Iris. But there was a lot more to this superbly-talented writer than a sad decline into disease.
Murdoch had a brilliant brain: in his book Iris, her husband John Bayley describes her working process. She would lock herself in her study, hard at work on her novel, for weeks on end. Then she'd emerge, relieved. She'd finished the novel now, she'd tell him... she just had to write it all down. Ironically, she had a marvellous memory and could store complex plots in her head before setting it all down on paper. She studied at Oxford, where she met her husband and several other lovers (whether any of those relationships continued into her marriage is a matter of some - prurient - speculation).
She wrote plays and poetry too, but is best known for her novels: she wrote twenty-six between 1954 and 1995, winning the Booker Prize in 1978 (for The Sea, The Sea).
Born in 1919, she died in 1999. Murdoch's literary legacy will live on, though - many consider her one of the most significant British writers of the twentieth century, and anyone wanting to become a novelist could do a lot worse than to read and absorb her words and study (and enjoy) her storytelling technique - it's close to flawless. Hugely erudite, her books are influenced by everything from metaphyscics to the Bible... but they're also easy to read and understand even if you don't get all the references. And they will make you think.
Read this: Under The Net.
Thursday Trailblazer archives.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on May 3, 2007 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Prize Winners, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
April 26, 2007 8:49 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Janet Evanovich
Yes, the great lady said it herself: she probably did, to a large extent, inspire the invention of chick lit: in the US, at least. So Janet Evanovich is the first living author to be featured in our Thursday Trailblazer series!
She started out writing romance novels, which were moderately successful. But she really found her voice (and a million-selling career) when she invented Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter extraordinaire. Her first foray into smart, snarky, first-person narration, Stephanie is strong, kicks ass and is never afraid to speak her mind. She also looks fabulous (I'm sure). In short, she's an inspiration: and Janet is too, turning her career into a family business (her daughter, son and husband all work for/with her!) - although she has admitted she barely gets time to breathe...
Her novels are obviously inspired by great authors like Elmore Leonard, but Evanovich's own influence is clear in writers like Jenny Crusie and Lani Diane Rich.
Read this: One For The Money.
What do you think?
And who's your favourite trailblazer? Let us know!
Thursday Trailblazer archives.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on April 26, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Crime / Mystery, Modern Fiction, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
April 19, 2007 5:09 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Jane Austen
Did you think we'd pick someone else for Austen Week?! Of course we couldn't...
As romance and chick lit authors have been testifying here all week, Austen is an inspiration to writers everywhere (male writers too, although not that many would like to admit it!) She wrote intelligent, well-plotted satirical novels that are hugely witty and which were often ahead of their time in their political and social themes. She's been called the original chick lit author - and as we all know, that's a huge compliment!
Anyone who wants to know how to write a romantic comedy (with a serious underlying moral) could do a lot worse than to study Miss Austen's six fine novels...
And you you read about why I find her an inspiring person (not just author), over at our new sister site Dollymix.
Read this: The Jane Austen boxed set (I know - cop out! I really couldn't choose...which do you like best?)
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on April 19, 2007 in Austen Week, Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (3)
April 12, 2007 4:48 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Nancy Mitford
You know those rafts of books currently clogging shelves devoted to upper-class motherhood and how gosh darn hard it is? Nancy Mitford was there first - and ten times funnier. Not that she wrote about being a mother herself (she wasn't one) but she satirised her own eccentric landed gentry family in a series of novels, the best and best-known of which is the fabulous In Pursuit of Love.
Then, just when everyone thought that she was a one-trick pony, she went and wrote a series of well-respected biographies on everyone from Madame de Pompadour to The Sun King. She was a lot more learned than people gave her credit for, and very self-aware. The key to enjoying Mitford's humour is to not take it too seriously - she was a wicked satirist who refused to take life that seriously. She would have made a wonderful chick lit writer (as she would say, "do admit".) And the letters between her and her friends, including Evelyn Waugh, are just fabulous.
Read this: In Pursuit of Love and Love from Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford.
What do you think - and who's your favourite trailblazer?
Thursday Trailblazer archives.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on April 12, 2007 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 5, 2007 4:36 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston isn't as well known as iconic black authors Alice Walker, Toni Morrison or Maya Angelou but it's more than likely her writing influenced all three, among countless others.
After studying a degree in Anthropology (perhaps the ideal area of study for a novelist?!) Hurston used her training to write a study of secret societies in Haiti. She also wrote about African-American folklore and worked as a journalist. But her breakthrough and best known work came in 1937 with her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Perhaps surprisingly, Zora Neale Hurston was a Republican who believed black people living among white people was not necessarily the ideal social model. While I can't really see her point, I do admire the way she forged her own beliefs and her own path through life.
And of course, the fact that her work lives on, with everyone from Zadie Smith to Oprah Winfrey being a fan of her writing.
Read this: Their Eyes Were Watching God (There's also an Oprah-produced film, starring Halle Berry). [DS]
What do you think - and who's your favourite trailblazer?
Posted by Aigua Media on April 5, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 29, 2007 6:20 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Dorothy Parker
To some extent, Dorothy Parker is better known for being a witty raconteur than a great writer - but there's no reason a woman can't be both! (I know I am, ha ha).
She was a notorious gossip columnist for The New Yorker and then a theatre critic, writer of short stories, poet and member of the infamous Algonquin round table (a group of artistes and witty people who met regularly to gossip around a round table at The Algonquin hotel in New York).
Parker quotes include:
"A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika."
"Brevity is the soul of lingerie"
and, of Katharine Hepburn: "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B"...
Parker didn't really have a very happy life, marrying a gay man and an alcoholic and spending much of her life trying (not very successfully) to fight off depression. Perhaps that's what made her so bitchy, even to her friends. She had a good heart though and tried to help others: campaigning against the death penalty and Communist witch hunts, among other human rights issues, and helping victims of the Spanish Civil War. She went to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, but hated it, although she penned several films including classic A Star Is Born. her fighting spirit, her wit, and most of all her writing have inspired many women writers of today, including the inimitable Nora Ephron (who was lucky enough to meet her).
Read this: The Portable Dorothy Parker
What do you think? Who's your favourite trailblazer?
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on March 29, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Short Story Collections, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (6)
March 22, 2007 12:08 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Sylvia Plath
Yes, she was a depressive who killed herself, and I'm not suggesting that action should pave the way for other female authors, but it's a shame the way Sylvia Plath died has come to overshadow her wonderful writing.
I'm sure you'll have heard of her first and only novel, The Bell Jar, the story of one young woman's summer in New York, working as an intern at a magazine, and the mental breakdown that follows... It's not a happy story, but it's well-written and evocative and sadly, many young women can relate to that kind of depression - reading this book they'll know they've not alone. Plath was also a very talented (if often bleak) poet, with her collection Ariel probably her best-known and most-respected work. Her diaries are also published and show more of the inner workings of her mind. Perhaps most surprising is that Plath also wrote a children's book, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. Let's try to remember her for her writing, and not for how she died...
Read this: The Bell Jar
Who's your favourite trailblazer?
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on March 22, 2007 in American Authors, Classic Novels, Memoirs, Modern Fiction, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (7)
March 15, 2007 4:17 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr Ripley. Ripley's Game. Strangers on a Train. All came from the talented and slightly disturbed mind of Ms Patricia Highsmith, award-winning author of a ream of bestselling crime books which transcended 'genre fiction' (Not that genre fiction is a bad thing!)
I had a Patricia Highsmith-filled summer a few years ago (I like a touch of darkness in my summer reading - too much sun is bad for you) and read all her Ripley books, some short stories and a couple of her other novels. It was a wonderful time! Highsmith was such a great writer with a brilliant talent for creating suspense from thin air, and making the reader care about eminently detestable characters (I found myself hoping Tom Ripley would get away with his crimes!) Her books are much more that whodunits and don't go in for any autopsy description or gore, she's much more interested in psychology and has surely influenced every female (and male) crime writer who followed her.
Highsmith's own life was sometimes the inspiration for her fiction: she wrote a lesbian stalker story, Carol in 1953 (very controversial at the time, so she used a pseudonym) based to some extent on her own experience. It's thought to be the first openly gay novel with a happy ending!
Macabre and dark, Highsmith certainly wasn't a girly girl, but her books aren't heavy or a struggle to read: they capture you and don't let you go.
Read this: The Talented Mr Ripley.
Thursday Trailblazer archives | Crime/mystery archives.
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on March 15, 2007 in American Authors, Book related, Classic Novels, Crime / Mystery, Opinion, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 8, 2007 6:27 PM
THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: E.M Delafield
When better than International Women's Day to launch a NEW! Trashionista series?! In Thursday Trailblazer, we'll focus each week on a female writer who (not surprisingly) blazed a trail, inspired the women writers who followed her and still has an important place in literature and in our hearts...
Today, a writer who for some strange reason isn't very well-known, but should be: E.M Delafield. She was working the Helen Fielding angle before Helen Fielding was even born. In 1930 she wrote the wry and satirical Diary of a Provincial Lady, (which has never been out of print) based on her own experiences as a young wife and mother. Three sequels followed, all about a worn-out Devon housewife (although she's posh and has 'staff', her household management is poor in every sense of the word) her inattentive husband and raucous children. She may just have invented funny, diary-style fiction by and for women - and the mum-lit genre, too! Witty, intelligent and not above poking fun at herself, she'd doubtless be a bestselling chick-lit author if she'd only hung on another eighty years!
Read this: Diary of a Provincial Lady
Related post: Best women writers of all time (do you agree?)
Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on March 8, 2007 in Book related, British Authors, Classic Novels, Debut Novels, Series, Thursday Trailblazer | Permalink | Comments (1)
