Upcoming New Volumes/Authors

An e-mail just received promoting LOA membership renewal contains this passage about forthcoming works:

"... the first ever single-volume edition of Herman Melville’s complete poems, two groundbreaking novels by African American author Ann Petry, and a trio of beloved children’s classics by Frances Hodgson Burnett—with their original illustrations painstakingly restored. Other volumes in production collect writings by William Bradford, Jean Stafford, S. J. Perelman, Booth Tarkington, John Williams, and Constance Fenimore Woolson. And I’m pleased to note that we have finally secured the rights to publish the first volume in the long-awaited LOA edition of Ernest Hemingway’s novels and stories."

Some of the items had already been announced, but some are new. Hemingway!!!!! :-)

Hemingway is encouraging: not unprecedented, plenty of other marquee names in LOA's catalogue. But encouraging that LOA is seen as much of an honour to the author as it is an honour for LOA to republish beloved works.

I say this as a lukewarm reader of Hemingway.

On Hemingway: probably similar to the Fitzgerald volume--is stuff starting to come out of copyright? A contents guess:

NOVELS AND STORIES 1923-1927
Some accounting for the stories from Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923), in our time (1924) and In Our Time (1925)
The Torrents of Spring (1926)
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Men Without Women (1927)

NOVELS AND STORIES 1929-1936
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Winner Take Nothing (1933)
Four Stories (Francis Macomber, Snows of Kilimanjaro, etc.) (written 1936; published 1938 in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories)
To Have and Have Not (1937)

NOVELS, STORIES, AND DRAMA 1938-1957
The Fifth Column (1938) This is a play. Will it be orphaned? It has now been produced.
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
Across the River and Into the Trees (1950)
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
9 Uncollected Stories published in EH's lifetime (1938-57)

A major problem with Hemingway are the posthumous works. I don't know if LOA is even interested and it would have to be a long while from now unless the estate and Scribner are really ready to play ball:

POSTHUMOUS NOVELS AND STORIES
Islands in the Stream (1970)
The Garden of Eden (1986)
True at First Light (1999)
Stories collected in UK Everyman's edition:
Drafts and Fragments published in The Nick Adams Stories (1972)
Stories first published in The Complete Short Stories (1987)
Juvenalia and Pre-Paris Stories

TRAVEL, MEMOIR, AND JOURNALISM
Death in the Afternoon (1932)
Green Hills of Africa (1935)
A Moveable Feast (1964) and please, the 1964 edition.
By-Line: Ernest Hemingway (1967) or more likely a new, larger selection of journalism

MORE PROBLEMS (NONFICTION DIVISION):
The Dangerous Summer (1985) full manuscript of 1960 Life articles; possibly covered above in journalism (and they were published during his lifetime).
Under Kilimanjaro (2005) the journal version of True at First Light

Podras: I fall into the same "camp", I believe. Lukewarm in regards to the majority of Hemingway's writing. There are numerous short stories -- and a handful of novels -- that I believe are masterful, but they aren't the usual suspects (even Updike picked "The Killers", a story everyone and his grandma anthologized, for The Best American Short Stories of the Century).

bsc20: Obviously, LOA is gonna try and do right by Hemingway, as well as show due diligence to a writer who looms large in "the canon"; a writer who, undoubtedly, influenced just a lot of others who followed in his footsteps.Stories like "A Clean, Well-lighted Place", Hills Like White Elephants", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "My Old Man", "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and, yes, even "The Killers" are worth collection in an LOA volume or three. And, THE SUN ALSO RISES and THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA should definitely make the cut. I'd also include A FAREWELL TO ARMS and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. Essays? A MOVEABLE FEAST, for sure. After that, BY-LINE... and perhaps one other.

For a guy who was known to ,be succinct in his writing, he sometimes could have used a better editor (the last three lines of "Big Two-Hearted River Part 1", for instance, come off less like a poetic litany and more like...well, over-writing).

If LOA publishes everything but his laundry list, that's cool. If it doesn't, from my standpoint, then just the essentials will be terrific.

Although he’s in an entirely different category than Hemingway, I am very happy to see S.J.Perlman on this list. He was one of the great humorists of the 20th century - and so far, of that group only Thurber has been given an LOA volume. Like Hemingway, Perlman wrote an awful lot, much of which probably would not merit republication, so an edited volume of his work would be ideal. Unlike Hemingway, his work is not currently in print, so having an LOA edition is vital to preserving his work.

Delighted, thrilled, relieved to hear that Ernest Hemingway is coming to the LOA.

A fundraising letter from LOA in yesterday's mail listed some forthcoming volumes, including some of those mentioned in the email discussed in first post in this thread, but added the following enigmatic phrase: "and writings on democracy, women's suffrage, and the nuclear age." These sound like anthologies, but it is not clear whether they will be special publications or main series volumes. Hopefully we'll get a better picture before too long of what these volumes will include beyond the rather vague characterizations in the letter.

A volume of Frances Hodgson Burnett's works, now scheduled for Sept. 2019, was a surprise until I looked him up and saw that he did much of his writing in the U.S. Perhaps there is hope yet for LOA volumes of P. G. Wodehouse's best work. :-)

Everyman’s has a best of Wodehouse out.

Is there anything by William Bradford other than Of Plymouth Plantation? Or at least that's really worth publishing? Seems like a full volume of Bradford would be shorter than the LoA standard.

Anyway, I'm glad to see Constance Fenimore Woolson getting some attention. In fact, I'd love to see a multi-volume set of the complete Woolson canon. It's a shame that she's just remembered (at least primarily) for the suicide that forever traumatized dear old Henry James.

ETA: Of course, I'd even more love to see a multi-volume set of the complete Sarah Orne Jewett canon. The single-volume LoA is pitifully inadequate (but then, I'm a nut on Maine literature). There's a near-complete online collection at the Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project, but online collections are just so dangerously ephemeral.

>10 CurrerBell:

The William Bradford volume will include Bradford and other Pilgrim writers--sort of like what was done for the surprisingly popular Capt. John Smith volume.

--David

The 2019 Subscription Customization form is up on LOA's subscribers page. It includes an entry for Constance Fenimore Woolson, hinted at above (see >1 Podras.:) but not yet formally announced.

>12 Podras.: Podras,

Belated thank you for noticing and posting

An article in LOA's Reader's Almanac, Library of America honored with Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award for bringing cultural heritage “into the future”, contains the information at the end that a new special edition, American Birds: A Literary Companion, will be published in 2020.

>14 Podras.:

That sounds intriguing from the title, I've read in the past few years a couple books on birds and am curious what the LOA has assembled.

Will there be more L'Engle volumes to come?
The Crosswicks Journals?
Austin family series?

Sorry if this is answered elsewhere, but I could not find anything indicating future plans.

Amazon is now showing John Updike: Novels 1968-1975, which includes the novels Couples, Rabbit Redux, and A Month Of Sunday’s. It is listed as LOA #326, with a release date of 1/7/20 according to Amazon.

Sorry if it’s already been noted somewhere, but I haven’t noticed it being mentioned anywhere.

Yeah, and if the STAFFORD collection is #324, the WOOLSON is #327 and the new UPDIKE is #326...what's inside #325?
:)

>18 Truett:
#325 is the Joan Didion volume.

I just received a fund raising letter from LOA that mentions forthcoming authors LOA will be publishing. Many we already know about, but there are some new authors, too. Among them are "an inaugural volume of Robert Stone's darkly brilliant novels", "Richard Hofstadter's classic writings on American politics", and "Jonathan Schell's writings on peace and nuclear war". There will also be "a timely survey of American Conservatism". Also acknowledged is John Updike's next volume containing Rabbit Redux.

Podras: Many thanks for the heads up! I'll gladly pass on the "survey on conservatism" since I've had my fill of that in American politics and society; the Schell volume sounds like a winner, as does the Hofstadter book. And, of course, Updike (even though I'm not as big a fan as you and a few others, his writing was sublime). But, for me, the big, BIG news is the inclusion of Robert Stone. Even one volume of his novels (A HALL OF MIRRORS, DOG SOLDIERS, A FLAG FOR SUNRISE...DAMASCUS GATE) would be terrific, but knowing that there will be two or more is excellent. (Icing on the cake would be a decision to include a volume collecting short stories and nonfiction, especially BEAR AND HIS DAUGHTER and PRIME GREEN). Groovy.

The Hofstadter, Schell, and Updike volumes all seem worthy but are not exciting to me personally.

I'm unfamiliar with Robert Stone, so that's more interesting! Thanks for the hints on where to start looking, Truett.

elenchus: my pleasure. And thank _you_ for pointing out what I obviously missed in another thread (the Didion, 325 -- an essential part of any library!). :) Stone is a little "thicker" reading than Updike (steak, instead of prime rib): more complex plots, more political machinations. A HALL OF MIRRORS takes on the 1960s Civil Rights era, and arch-conservatism in the USA and their influence on the media (a monster that keeps shambling no matter how many stakes are put through its many hearts); DOG SOLDIERS revisits the same era, with its ex-marine protagonist getting involved in the drug trade (Stone, ex-Navy and merchant marine, knew Ken Kesey and others fairly well); A FLAG FOR SUNRISE takes on America's involvement in Central America; and in DAMASCUS GATE a journalist gets involved in political intrigue and terrorist plots in Jerusalem and Gaza. And PRIME GREEN is a memoir that covers the sixties, and Stone's time in the Navy, hanging out with Kesey, reporting on the Vietnam War, etc.

In post No. 7 in this thread I noted that an earlier fundraising letter mentioned, enigmatically, “writings on democracy, women’s suffrage, and the nuclear age.” I now wonder whether the first and third of these topics were references to the forthcoming volumes by Hofstadter and Schell, respectively. I’m very much looking forward to both.

It sounds right, esp the Jonathan Schell for "nuclear age", though his writings easily apply to "democracy", as well.

Note for DCLOYCESMITH:

Any word, yet, on:
1) another volume of O'Hara novels (perhaps A RAGE TO LIVE, TEN NORTH FEDERICK and FROM THE TERRACE)?
2) The next Shirley Jackson volume?
3) The Donald Bartheleme volume or volumes?

I've just received a fund-raising letter from LOA soliciting donations for Lift Every Voice, "... a groundbreaking publishing and public programming initiative that celebrates and explores the voices of African American poets as never before." Part of that program is the release of a new LOA volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song. The volume is to be released to the general public in September 2020. Donors of $100 or more will receive a courtesy volume in advance of the general release. So far, this appears to be a members only offer.

The flier that accompanied LOA's recent Joan Didion: The 1960s & 70s volume says that it is the first of a three volume edition of her works. There's no word on when the other volumes are planned for release.

The latest (Fall 2019) newsletter from LOA contains this note about Wendell Berry: "Future volumes in the Library of America Wendell Berry edition will collect the remainder of the fiction as well his (sic) poetry." Three volumes down and x to go.

>10 CurrerBell: Woo-HOOOO! The Woolson volume is now available for immediate online order from LoA prior to its bookstore arrival on February 4 next year.

>30 CurrerBell:

The Woolson volume looks to be right in the wheelhouse of LOA: an once-influential and accomplished writer's whose works are lost on the average US reader today. I'd never heard of her, look forward to reading your review and (perhaps) picking up the volume myself.

>31 elenchus: I've read her "Lake-Country Sketches" (the Great Lakes area, rather gothic in tone, 4½**** review) and her "Southern Sketches" (Reconstruction Era, 4**** review) on Kindle, but I could use a reread after a half-dozen years. She also wrote a number of "Americans abroad" types of stories (often compared to her friend Henry James) which I've never read, and this LoA edition could be a really nice compendium of her stories.

Woolson committed suicide by defenestration in Venice at the age of 53, apparently while of "unsound mind" and in serious pain while suffering from influenza. A very unfair image developed of Woolson as a wannabe whose primary historical interest was her death that forever traumatized poor dear old Henry.

She also wrote several novels along with some poetry and travel writings. I see some interesting comparisons/contrasts between her and Sarah Orne Jewett.

Woolson was a distant relative of James Fenimore Cooper.

Ah, appreciate you pointing out those reviews of the individual collections: I'm actually most interested in her regional stuff, both for its treatment of racism in U.S. culture and for the Great Lakes stuff (I'm in Chicago and spent high school years outside Detroit so while the UP is quite distinct, still it's part of the region I identify with).

>32CurrerBell: interesting that you write "Woolson committed suicide..." I don't know much about her beyond what I've read online -- the LOA site included -- but no one seems to know for sure that it was suicide. Is there a source you've read wherein someone witnessed her jumping? (I know she was depressed, but she was also pretty sick -- the flu. Without seeing the actual site of the event, I can imagine someone -- not thinking clearly -- sitting on a window ledge, to catch a breeze while overheated from fever, perhaps; or even a few other knuckle-headed, but thoroughly human, things that she could have done to lose her balance and fall from the window (it's unusual, but it has happened -- and occasionally, still does).

I just got another fund-raising flier from LOA with teasers about forthcoming volumes. Someone who hadn't been mentioned before is E. O. Wilson, a noted biologist/ecologist. A piece by him was included in American Earth.

Another teaser that isn't so specific is "volumes exploring the foundational texts that define our democracy". That is a pretty fuzzy description, but I'm guessing that the volumes may be anthologies of essays written over the years focusing on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. along the lines of The Lincoln Anthology (main series volume #192), The Mark Twain Anthology (#199), or American Earth (#182). Based on my track record about such guesses in the past, I'm probably way off the mark, but it's fun to speculate. Besides, that sounds like a really good idea.

This page from LOA's web site has been updated with some new titles, too, since I last saw it. The African American Poetry volume is slated for September next year.

>35 Podras.:

Good news about the future inclusion of E. O. Wilson. He is so prolific that it is hard to guess what works of his might be included in one or more LOA volumes. But I might guess they would be among the following: On Human Nature, Biophilia, The Diversity of Life, Naturalist (his autobiography), Consilience, The Future of Life, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, and Half-Earth. There are others that could be included. Some of his well-known books are more technical and, in my opinion, unlikely to be included by LOA, such as The Theory of Island Biogeography, The Insect Societies, Sociobiology, and The Ants.

Podras: thanks, as always, for the heads up about forthcoming volumes.

Regarding the newsletter: besides the silver-spoon-neediness of "well-to-do" types wanting their photos printed (used to run into that a LOT when writing/photographing for a city magazine in the USA), the most cringe-worthy part of the newsletter is the fact that they list the names of the contributors followed by their donation amounts! WTAF? I believe there's a high-falutin' word for that. Oh, yeah: gauche.

DCLOYCESMITH: if you're reading, and (of course) care to answer, I'd love the enlightenment. What's the difference between LIBRARY OF AMERICA, EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY and MODERN LIBRARY? Other than the fact that they aren't limited to USA authors, is it strictly that the latter two aren't non-profit? (That would explain how they often obtain titles from authors like Toni Morrison and Ray Bradbury, etc. They published a few by O'Hara before LOA picked him up). I noticed the quality of the books seems to be quite similar: all of the on the high quality side, of course. For some reason, it seems as if the owners (?) or publishers of Everyman's and Modern seem to overlap in some areas (maybe not).

Truett, Everyman's and Modern Library are now both part of the vast Random House empire. RH not only has these lines but also distributes Penguin Classics, NYRB, and even LOA. Since I buy a lot from all five, I tend to keep tabs on this.

Everyman's used to be an independent UK-only line published by Dent, but Knopf bought and relaunched it in the US and UK in 1991. Some UK titles are not available in the US due to exclusive publishing agreements here (Hemingway with Scribner, etc). This is my go-to for non-US authors with the exception of works in translation. Here I pick and choose depending on whether they are using a centuries-old public domain translation or something more recent/full/accurate. Quality is generally good but there have been some rumblings about glue being used from time to time. Until Random House took over Knopf in about 2002, the US editions did not have dust jackets. The UK editions mostly did but the gilding on the spines differed slightly between US and UK editions of the same book. After 2002 new titles have had dust jackets and the older ones seem to get them once they are reprinted, if they ever are (still waiting on Tristram Shandy and several others). Introductions are scholarly and there is substantial other apparatus to assist the reader.

Modern Library is an original Bennett Cerf/Random House baby that, like Everyman's in the UK, provided pocket size hardcovers for the US market. Sometime in the 1990s Random House relaunched the line in the attractive goldish-green covers. While the paper quality and at times the binding did not reach Everyman's standards, they had a somewhat greater 20th century focus, especially of authors RH already had. So you would get a Frederick Exley, a Gore Vidal, William Styron, etc. Introductions tend to be brief and biographical.

Two things have happened in the new century. Random House bought Knopf and has been in a lengthy process of making Everyman's its go-to line for hardcover classic reprints while Modern Library has essentially been converted over to paperback, with a just few titles still available in hardcover. This means that Everyman's publishes at least as many titles in its Contemporary Classics line (orange dust jacket spines) as it does material from before the 20th century. (Apparently for them Joyce and Forster are "contemporary.")

And in all these cases, as I think DCS has confirmed before, those titles for which Random House already has the rights via its various imprints are the ones you will see if they are not in public domain. Since Random House is an ever-growing leviathan with huge reach and several imprints at its disposal, they will not soon lack for contemporary material for Everyman's to publish. Peter Carey and Lorrie Moore, for example, are on the way.

LOA does not have exclusive rights to anyone except in the case of special publications. The main line is all public domain or negotiated additional publishing rights (likely the publisher will get a cut in a licensing agreement, thus keeping the price point for books by recent authors high). This is how, for example, the Criterion Collection operates in film even though it is for-profit. Everything is licensed.

>38 bsc20:

Modern Library was begun in 1917 by Boni & Liveright. Cerf bought it from them in 1925.

Knopf was acquired by Random House in 1960, not 2002.

And Random/Knopf relaunched Modern Library and Everyman's hardbacks in the early/mid 1990s not in the 'new century'. I remember ordering stock and putting up displays.

------------------

Isn't one of the differences that LOA volumes are freshly edited, whereas ModLib and EvLib are essentially reprints?

36 Crypto-Willobie

Points 1 and 2 well taken. In 2002 the dust jackets began to appear more regularly, but not because of acquisition.

Point 3: I mentioned Modern Library's hardcover reboot in the 1990s. The change in the 2000s was to move the line to paperback. I remember well stocking those new Modern Librarys in the 90s. It is a shame the hardcovers are becoming extinct. I tend to grab them when I see them in used shops, where they still stand out.

Adding to the above comments:

The goals of the series are quite different. Everyman's Library and Modern Library were both established to make available to "everyday" readers canonical and essential works, mostly from the "Western Canon" (as it was conceived a century ago). There were a handful of authors that had most of their works eventually published in the series (Dickens comes to mind, with introductions written by G. K. Chesterton), but otherwise the focus was on singular works in individual volumes.

LOA was founded not only to publish landmark American works and keep them in print but also to include a comprehensive selection (or a generous selection) of the writings of those authors--rather than simply their best-known work or works. Although the mission has expanded since then to include genre and themes, the focus on omnibus editions remains.

Just one example: Melville. In the original Everyman's Library line-up, there were three volumes: Typee (1907), Omoo (1908), and Moby-Dick (1907). Typee and Omoo, formerly considered his masterpieces, fell out of public and critical favor and at the late twentieth-century there were just two Everyman Library's volumes for Melville: Moby-Dick and his shorter fiction (including Billy Budd). There have never, I believe, been Everyman's Library editions of Mardi, White-Jacket, Pierre, Confidence-Man, etc. In fact, when the LOA editions were published in the 1980s, many of Melville's "other" works were out of print.

Until recently, with the exception of trilogies and story/essay anthologies, Everyman's and Modern Library published individual works. Thus, the original Everyman's volume had The Rights of Man--but nothing else by Paine was in the series. Common Sense was added to the recent edition, so the reader now gets two works in one volume. (Still no Age of Reason, though.) And so on.

The differences explain, in part, why LOA would not have survived as a profit venture. The best-known and most-read works are, obviously, more likely to sell. Even then, both Everyman's and Modern Library had difficult periods over the century, and both were nearly terminated--or greatly curtailed--at various times. At one point, Everyman's had 1,200 volumes; now there are under 500. Trust me: nobody was counting coin at the LOA when we published a one-volume collection of three novels by Charles Brockden Brown. (Although I'm happy to say that volume is in its third printing.) I don't believe there has ever been a hardcover edition of CBB in either of the other two series.

None of this should be taken to minimize the importance of our "competitors"; in fact, Random House was one of several companies that helped prop up the LOA during its early years, along with Time-Life Books, Book-of-the-Month Club, and several other firms. And I own and treasure dozens of Modern Library and Everyman's Library editions and recommend them often. All three series serve different purposes and audiences, and we complement and amplify one another's efforts, both editorially and commercially.

David

DCLOYCESMITH: As always, many (MANY) thanks for your considered and enlightening response. And thanks to others who chimed in!

By the way: been getting into the Harlem Renaissance novels: Here's hoping Nella Larsen's PASSING -- a superior novel, I think, to QUICKSAND (included in the Renaissance collection) someday gets published by LOA. With it's timeless theme of "passing" -- not the racial "passing", although that was (and, in some ways, is still an important topic) but the sexual passing in the novel -- it is very much relevant to our times (I think a LOT of critics completely missed the dual possibilities in the "passing" theme of the novel, mainly because the U.S. has always been -- and still is, compared to other developed nations -- a sexually repressed society). A film based on the novel -- featuring Ruth Negga -- was recently completed, so interest in the work is out there. :)

Happy holidays to all the regulars, and particularly to David and the folks at LOA!

I don't see anything on the LOA website yet, but Penguin appears to have listed the long-awaited first Hemingway volume: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646139/ernest-hemingway-the-sun-also-ri...

>43 JacobHolt:
The Hemingway volume is now also listed on Amazon:
https://smile.amazon.com/Ernest-Hemingway-Writings-1918-1926-journalism/dp/15985...

This is really cool. Looking forward to it.

bsc20: agreed. While LOA oft-times publishes an author _after_ Everyman's or even Modern Library, LOA usually does a much more comprehensive job. With it's dual IN OUR TIME collections (lower case version, too), author-preferred texts of THE TORRENTS OF SPRING and (AND!) THE SUN ALSO RISES, along with piece of journalism (some unpublished) and some of his letters, the introductory Ernest Hemingway volume for Library of America might well be a must-own volume: for those who want everything Hemingway, and those who only want the "best of".

Another must-have Hemingway volume is the U.K. Everyman's edition of the Collected Stories - available on Amazon as an import. This is by far the most comprehensive one-volume edition, more complete than earlier U.S. editions including the Finca Vigia edition. It also includes both texts of IN OUR TIME. U.K. Everyman also publishes nice hardcovers of the collected stories of Thomas Mann & D. H. Lawrence, also unavailable here for copyright reasons (but able to be ordered). I'm looking forward to the LOA Hemingway edition, but it's nice to have all the stories in one volume. Generally I prefer LOA author editions which separate the stories & the novels, although it's understandable why copyright concerns made that unworkable for Fitzgerald & Hemingway.

michaelLOA -- took a peek at the contents for the EVERYMAN's edition of THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES -- only place I could find a listing was on wikipedia (and to believe THAT site is always accurate -- since anyone and everyone can add and subtract -- is to believe Trump's claims about fake news), so bear that in mind.

From what I can see, the Everyman's had a handful of, extra, drafts & fragments: "The Indians Moved Away", "Three Shots", "Crossing the Mississippi", "Night Before Landing", "Wedding Day" and "On Writing". As you mentioned, it also seems to contain both versions of IN OUR TIME. AND, it also lists "juvenalia and pre-Paris stories": "Judgment of Manitou","A Matter of Colour", "Sepi Jingan" (all from 1916); and, "The Mercenaris", "Crossroads – an Anthology", "Portrait of the Idealist in Love", "The Ash Heel's Tendon" and "The Current" (all copyright 1985, when they were apparently discovered or whatever).

And, looking at my Fincia Vigia edition, I see THAT book has the following short stories that are NOT in the Everyman's edition: "One Trip Across", "The Trademan's Return" and "An African Story".

Perhaps LOA will either find a "happy medium" and/or see that ALL of the stories and fragments eventually are collected in their editions of Hemingway's works.
(Can't help but wonder: if LOA decides to publish ALL of Hemingway's works, will they republish the novels that originally came out posthumously, and without Hemingway's consent or approval? Thinking of ISLANDS IN THE STREAM, THE GARDEN OF EDEN and TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT).

MichaelLOA-- Yes, I've ferreted out all three Everyman's titles you mention. The Lawrence and Mann books are remarkable. I'm not sure I would part with the Hemingway even after the LOA series is fully published. I let my Fincia Vigia edition go, however.

Here's the latest Forthcoming post:
https://loa.org/news-and-views/1591-forthcoming-fall-2020

Also, the annual New Title announcement will mail to subscribers this week and includes two early 2021 titles that we expect to arrive from the printer before the end of 2020: Octavia E. Butler's Kindred, Fledgling, and Complete Stories, plus the previously announced Jean Stafford's Complete Stories and Other Writings.

-- David

Appreciate the early warning!

The D'J Pancake is utterly new to me and intriguing, for whatever reason I'm reminded of early period Tom Waits and perhaps Rudolf Wurlitzer from the very brief description. One I shall be looking out for.

DCLOYCESMITH: YES!!! (Believe it or not, my excitement is contained). Another volume of fiction (the early novels) by the brilliant Shirley Jackson AND another volume by the equally brilliant Ursula K. Le Guine (her later novels, which is pretty cool).

I'm guessing those two volumes will be it for Shirley Jackson, so I'll hang into the paper book I have which covers her likewise brilliant nonfiction writings (when she was a freelancer for magazines, whose body of work was inspirational to others who followed in her footsteps).

And, of course, the initial Hemingway is one I'll certainly be scooping up.

And the Breece D'J'Pancake is not only completely unexpected, it is most welcome (the only thing that could have "ticked both boxes" even more would be a volume including John Kennedy Toole's two novels -- "Confederacy" is brilliant). I still have my copy of THE STORIES OF... I was a VERY busy reader back in the 80s, and Phillips' review turned me onto that volume. There were many other NYTimes reviews (all found at the local library, way back when, WELL before the internet) which also turned me onto other brilliant writers: some who went on to even more success, others who faged into obscurity (ALMOST FAMOUS by David Small who went on to illustrate children's books, EASY TRAVEL TO OTHER PLANETS by Ted Mooney, VISON QUEST by Terry Davis that book has justly become a highschool classic, TAR BABY Morrison's genius wasn't quite as recognized back then, when I read Irving's review of her book, as it is now, SHOELESS JOE by W.P. Kinsella looong before the movie; I know he's Canadian, but some classics transcend borders, SOUNDING THE TERRITORY by Laurel Goldman, SISTER WOLF by Ann Arensberg a writer whose books -- GROUP SEX, INCUBUS, both equally brilliant -- gestate slowly, ARANSAS by the brilliant Texas writer Stephen Harrigan whose THE GATES OF THE ALAMO is a tour de force, but DO check out his other books, especially JACOB'S WELL, A FRIEND OF MR. LINCOLN and REMEMBER BEN CLAYTON and on, and on). Good to see one of that crowd being honored with an LOA volume (I know, I know: Morrison WOULD have been included, long ago, but for copyright issues). :)
Almost forgot! BIRDY by William Wharton (another of the great reads to come out in the 1980s). And I'm STILL an advocate for including something of Wharton's: a volume of his WWII related work would be great: the National Book Award winner, BIRDY; A MIDNIGHT CLEAR; FRANKY FURBO (a brilliant, fantasical allegory); and SHRAPNEL (a very moving, nonfiction account of his time in the US Army during WWII)

That's another Good News announcement from LOA with consequences. Some of the great new volumes announced today have already been known about, but I can finally stop holding my breath waiting for concrete news of the second volume of Shirley Jackson's works. :-) :-) :-) A volume of Octavia Butler's works is also wonderful, but we need to stop proposing Kindred for inclusion in a prospective SF Novels of the 1970s edition. Finally, probably nobody but me remembers that I predicted years ago that a volume focusing on the Pilgrims would be released this year. It seemed inevitable because this year is the 400th anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Rock, and LOA likes to release volumes in its historical writings series at or near anniversaries with zeroes at the end. There's more great reading coming our way.

>53 Podras.: probably nobody but me remembers that I predicted

Well done, I didn't recall your prediction (and wasn't seeing that this is the anniversary), but I did remark that volume and thought it a worthy entry in LOA.

Podras: "we need to stop proposing Kindred for inclusion in a prospective SF Novels of the 1970s edition."

Why?
NOT being cantankerous -- just wondering why (wrong genre in your opinion? Too many sales to still be had in another format?)
P.S. thanks for the reminder about HER forthcoming LOA volume: small (too small) but indispensable.
Whoops: I conflated LOA with Subterranean: the latter has a small (too small) collection of two, count 'em two, stories coming out later in the year. As for your mentioning Butler within an LOA post: do you know something that hasn't been announced yet, or did you meant to write that a volume of Butler's works WOULD be wonderful? (Or did I completely miss a post announcing a forthcoming Butler volume?)

Just logged into my account; 2020 Customization form is up:

NEW TITLES FOR 2020

AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY: 250 Years of Struggle and Song 103499

AMERICAN WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote, 1776–1965 103481

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER: Kindred, Fledgling, Complete Stories 103549

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: The Sun Also Rises & Other Writings 1918–1926 103507

RICHARD HOFSTADTER: Anti-Intellectualism, The Paranoid Style, Essays 1956–1965 103457

SHIRLEY JACKSON: Four Novels of the 1940s & 50s 103523

URSULA K. LE GUIN: Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts, Voices, Powers) 103515

PLYMOUTH COLONY: Narratives from the Mayflower to King Philip’s War 103531

JONATHAN SCHELL: The Fate of the Earth, The Abolition, The Unconquerable World 103465

JEAN STAFFORD: Complete Stories & Other Writings 103556

ROBERT STONE: Dog Soldiers, A Flag for Sunrise, Outerbridge Reach 103440

JOHN UPDIKE: Novels 1968–1975 103432

THE WESTERN: Four Classic Novels of the 1940s & 50s 103473

>55 Truett: David's post above (>50 DCloyceSmith:) revealed that a Butler volume, officially a 2021 release including Kindred, would likely become available late this year. It wasn't in the official announcement. That has been confirmed by the 2020 Customization form for subscribers as pointed out by >56 sdolton:.

Podras: (sigh) (heavy sigh). Don't if it's undiagnosed dyslexia, ADHD or just SMS (Standard Male Syndrome), but anything that ISN'T fiction -- or well-written (i.e., entertaining) nonfiction -- seems to be hard for me to read (which, of course, explains all of the extra parts whenever I put together bicycles or Ikea furniture).

Consider me Pope-slapped (which, for your information, has supplanted dope-slapping, as a popular way to get someone to wake up and pay attention). :)

(Okay, it hasn't "officially" supplanted dope-slapping, but it should -- so help start a trend).

Of course my trade paperback copy of Butler's Kindred arrived the day before David's announcement. I'm looking forward to the LOA volume though, since I've never read her but she is held in high regard in both academic and lay circles.

>59 bsc20: Personally I think Fledgling is the best vampire book ever written, though I've never read Sheridan Le Fanu. And Bloodchild is one of my all-time favorite short stories – not just one of my favorite sci-fi stories, but one of my favorite stories PERIOD.

Thinking more about Hemingway, it could be that the entire series would be based on "tentpole" titles like The Sun Also Rises. Something like this:

A Farewell to Arms and Other Writings, 1927-1933:
Men Without Women (1927)
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Death in the Afternoon (1932)
Winner Take Nothing (1933)
Letters and Journalism (1927-33)

For Whom the Bell Tolls and Other Writings, 1934-1940:
Green Hills of Africa (1935)
To Have and Have Not (1937)
The Fifth Column and the four new stories from The First Forty-Nine (1938)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
Spanish Civil War journalism/letters (1934-1940)

The Old Man and the Sea and Other Writings, 1941-1961:
World War II Journalism/Unpublished WWII short stories (1944 onward)
Across the River and Into the Trees (1950)
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
The Dangerous Summer (magazine publication 1960)
Letters, Nobel acceptance speech, journalism, Mayo Clinic medical files (1941-61)

A Moveable Feast and Other Posthumous Writings:
A Moveable Feast (1964)
Islands in the Stream (1970)
The Garden of Eden (1986)
True at First Light/Under Kilimanjaro (1999/2005)
Unpublished stories?

Makes sense?

Here's my two cents of authors I'd like to see in LOA (ignoring the obvious eventuals like Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy, DFW, etc)

Douglas Hofstadter (everything please, but especially Godel, Escher, Bach)
John Cage (writings on music, etc)
Charles Olsen
A more complete Gwendolyn Brooks than the APP volume
Langston Hughes
Ralph Ellison
Patricia Highsmith
The big three of postmodernism: John Barth, William Gaddis, and William Gass
Stephen Sondheim: lyrics
Grace Paley
Lucia Berlin
Lydia Davis
George Saunders
William Gibson (I think he's the obvious next science fiction writer to be included after Le Guin and Butler ...)

>62 vharty:
"A collection of the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim" is one of the projects for which LOA is seeking support: https://www.loa.org/support/project-support

It's getting close to the membership renewal time of year with its concomitant e-mail reminder containing teasers about upcoming volumes. Some have been announced, but the list contains a number of new items, too. That got me to check out LOA's fundraising page again with its own set of teasers, some of which have been on that list for a while. Between the two, here is a list of upcoming stuff that has not yet been formally announced:

Rachel Carson (probably her Ocean trilogy since Silent Spring, etc. is already out)

Bruce Catton (his Civil War trilogy)

Frederick Douglass ("An authoritative edition of the essays and speeches")

F. Scott Fitzgerald (this would be the second volume of his works :-)

Margaret Fuller

O. Henry

S. J. Perelman

Gary Snyder

Stephen Sondheim (lyrics)

Elizabeth Spencer

Henry David Thoreau (Journal excerpts)

John Williams

World War II Pacific Theater memoirs (a trio of them)

"A major two-volume anthology dedicated to the nineteenth-century American short story"

"An anthology of plays by twentieth-century American women playwrights"

The information LOA gave out doesn't say which of these will be in the main series versus special publications. Some are easy to guess.

I can confirm that all of the above are series volumes.

--David

>64 Podras.:

It's interesting to note that two of these authors are still living--Gary Snyder and Stephen Sondheim, both born in 1930.

>65 DCloyceSmith: Thanks David.

It looks like the Elizabeth Spencer volume is listed on Amazon with a June 1st, 2021 release date.

I am very excited about the Gary Snyder volumes(s?)

I updated Amazon's release dates for upcoming LOA publications this morning. I had previously commented enthusiastically about the Molière special publications coming out this November, but this morning as I was working on the update, I thought to check out the translator, Richard Wilbur, who I was unfamiliar with. It seems that he has quite a respectable set of credentials himself.

Speculation: Could Richard Wilbur be a candidate for inclusion in LOA's main series?

>70 Podras.: thank you once again

World War II Pacific Theater memoirs Sounds wonderful. I do like anything with ww2