The great science fiction writer Leigh Brackett was #BOTD
The “Queen of Space Opera” wrote SF/F for the pulps of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1944 she wrote her first mystery novel, which came to the attention of legendary director Howard Hawks. When Hawks needed help on an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Big Sleep’…
...he told his secretary to "get this guy Brackett." She then left for Hollywood, leaving a half-finished tale for Planet Stories 'Lorelei of the Red Mist'. She asked her emerging writer friend to complete it for her, which Ray Bradbury did seamlessly. Her husband was another SF/F writer of the era, Edmond Hamilton.
But instead of heading to Hollywood after the end of the pulps, Edmond ended his long career at DC Comics. She died from cancer in 1978, but not before turning in the first draft script for what would become “The Empire Strikes Back!” Although her script was rewritten by others, many key elements remain.
The #Scottish writer published five #gothic romance novels by the early 1800s but never put her #poetry in print. In 1919, excerpts of her poetry appeared in a newspaper, but the source of these poems – a notebook she presented to a family friend – disappeared. Now Craik’s poetry manuscript has been found & published by two @uofsc faculty members
A Woman’s Autobiographical Text From Tenth-Century Japan
Japan is the only country in the world where women writers laid the foundations of classical literature. The Kagerō Diary commands our attention as the first extant work of that rich and brilliant tradition.
Elspeth Barker (1940–2022) was born #OTD, 16 November
Maggie O’Farrell called Barker’s classic O CALEDONIA
“one of those books you proselytize about; you want to beckon others aboard its glorious train. … I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named O CALEDONIA as her favourite book”
Kate Kellaway describes Elspeth Barker’s NOTES FROM THE HENHOUSE as
“a book for which one feels incredulous gratitude. How come, you think, she is not better known? The book deserves to be permanently on the bedside table—to cheer, reassure & inspire”
Currently available on BBC Sounds: an 8-part adaptation of Elspeth Barker’s O CALEDONIA, the brilliant, dark & funny tale of Janet – dreamy, misunderstood & ultimately doomed, she lives a life of imagination in a bleak castle in North-east Scotland…
New!
POEMS BY A LADY
by Helen Craik
Ed. by Rachel Mann & Patrick Scott
The #poetry of Helen Craik (1751–1825), #Gothic novelist & friend of #RobertBurns, was long thought lost. The rediscovery of her 1790 #manuscript “Poems by a Lady”, transcribed here for the first time, invites a fresh evaluation of her life & work, & adds to the critical reassessment of poetry by #Scottish women in the #Romantic era
“My interest was sparked by the circumstances – the discovery of a manuscript that had long been thought lost. Add to that the very questionable rumours surrounding Craik’s abrupt departure from Arbigland, and you’ve got yourself a plot that seems to jump out of the pages of academic fiction.”
—Rachel Mann & Patrick Scott discuss their co-edited edition of Helen Craik’s POEMS BY A LADY
“Given how neglected Mavor’s reputation is today, it might come as a surprise to learn that when she made the Booker shortlist she was 46 years old and the author of three previous novels and two biographies; all of which had been very well received.”
Elizabeth Mavor’s 1973 Booker-nominated novel A Green Equinox has just been republished, by McNally Editions in the US & as a Virago Modern Classic in the UK
“My interest was sparked by the circumstances – the discovery of a manuscript that had long been thought lost. Add to that the very questionable rumours surrounding Craik’s abrupt departure from Arbigland, and you’ve got yourself a plot that seems to jump out of the pages of academic fiction.”
—Rachel Mann & Patrick Scott discuss their co-edited edition of Helen Craik’s POEMS BY A LADY (Nov 2023)
Susan Ferrier (1782–1854) was born #OTD, 7 Sept. Her 3 novels—Marriage, The Inheritance, & Destiny—are vivid & humorous accounts of Scottish society. Often compared to her contemporary #JaneAusten, Ferrier’s satires are much more vicious…
@litstudies
We republished Susan Ferrier’s MARRIAGE in 2020—using the text of the acid-sharp 1819 edition rather than the sentimentalised Victorian version of 1842. Read the first chapter free online here:
@litstudies
“the foibles of the Scottish characters are usually much less detestable than those of the English”
Untrammelled by Theory: Susan Ferrier’s Polyphonic Vision of Scotland & the Union in MARRIAGE
—Benjamine Toussaint, Scottish Literary Review 8/1, 2016 – on Open Access via Project MUSE
@litstudies
“Miss Ferrier avowedly made thumb-nail sketches,—as is proved in one of the few surviving letters to or from her,—out of which grew the merciless caricatures that created her fame”
An 1893 article in The Atlantic Magazine, contrasting the careers of Susan Ferrier & Jane Austen
@litstudies
“THE INHERITANCE is, then, a novel concerned with questions of morality and education, but also national identity, the differences between Scottish and English cultures, and the stereotypes within human nature that both divide and unite the two. It is also very funny”
—The Books & Borrowing 1750–1830 Project on Susan Ferrier’s second novel, THE INHERITANCE
A birthday 🧵 for Violet Jacob (1863–1946) – poet, novelist, short story writer, & key figure in the 20th-century Scottish renaissance & #Scots language revival – born #OTD, 1 September
John Buchan called FLEMINGTON – Violet Jacob’s novel of the 1745 #Jacobite uprising – “the best Scots romantic novel since The Master of Ballantrae”, & The List magazine chose it as one of their Best 100 Scottish Books of All Time
“We have not met with any thing nearly so good as this since we read the Castle Rackrent, and the Popular Tales of Miss Edgeworth”
—The Edinburgh Review, June 1810