New Sherlock Holmes Short Story Found After 111 Years (Perhaps...)

Walter Elliot, an eighty year-old historian unearthed a forgotten Sherlock Holmes work after it had been in his attic in Selkirk, Scotland for almost fifty years.

Ceru Iajes/SWINS

Elliot told The Telegraph: 

Usually people would throw out these books or sell them off. It has been in my family for quite a while now. I have no idea if it has ever been published…I have no idea how many they made and sold.
  

AP Photo

The book is called "Sherlock Holmes:  Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar. It concerns Watson going on a trip to Selkirk ."I've always been interested in history and my family has always passed on stories and I suppose this was one of the stories that was passed down,” said Elliot. 

“I’ve had this book for about 40 or 50 years. I must have got it from a friend because I can’t remember buying it from anyone.”The story in in a 45 page pamphlet and was written in 1904 by Sir Conan Doyle to help raise money to rebuild a wooden bridge that had been flooded in town.I can’t remember how much they raised…they wanted it to be a carriage bridge, but they didn’t get quite enough for that,” Elliot said.  Instead, he added, they built an iron bridge “and it’s still there today."

Addendum:

Just after a new Dr. Seuss book was discovered, historian Walter Elliot claimed he owns a copy of a never-released Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. “Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar” is a 1,300-word short story that Doyle purportedly wrote more than 80 years ago. The booklet holding the story will be on display at the Cross Keys Selkirk Pop-up Community Museum in Selkirk, Scotland, starting Saturday. But while Sherlock fans might rush to see the piece, experts are skeptical that the recently discovered story was actually written by Doyle. (GalleyCat, L.A. Times)

Five Charities That Promote Literacy

Here is a list of charities that help promote literacy.  An important endeavor, these charities listed here are worthy of mention.

1. First Book: “At First Book, our innovative approaches tackle the single biggest barrier to the development of literacy – access to books. To date, First Book has provided more than 120 million books to children in need, increasing access to needed materials for educators and administrators, and helping to elevate educational opportunities for our nation’s most disadvantaged youth.”

2. Donors Choose.org: “DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on our site, and you can give any amount to the project that most inspires you.”

3. We Give Books: “We Give Books distributes books to children in need across 5 continents through our Charity Partners. Featured Charity Partners receive book donations from We Give Books on an ongoing basis.” 

4. Better World Books: “Better World Books uses the power of business to change the world. We collect and sell books online to donate books and fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.”

5. Girls Write Now: “Founded in 1998, Girls Write Now is the first organization in the country with a writing and mentoring model exclusively for girls. Girls Write Now provides guidance, support, and opportunities for at-risk and underserved girls from New York City’s public high schools to develop their creative, independent voices, explore careers in professional writing, and learn how to make healthy school, career and life choices.”

Thirty Early Truman Capote Stories Discovered

A Swiss publisher was searching for chapters of Truman Capote’s unfinished final novel last summer when he stumbled upon a different find. While poring over Capote’s writings and papers at the New York Public Library, the publisher, Peter Haag, discovered a collection of previously unpublished short stories and poems from Capote’s youth.

Truman Capote
Portofino, Italy
Leonida Barezzi/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images        

Four of the stories, believed to have been written from 1935 to 1943, appear in German translations in the German publication ZEITmagazin. Those stories will be seen in German more than a year ahead of the scheduled release of the full collection, a dozen poems and roughly 20 stories, by Random House in English and by Kein & Aber in German.

Editor David Ebershoff says:

By the time Capote was writing these early stories, his voice was already formed. Reading the manuscripts — with his corrections and edits — is fascinating. You can literally see a young genius at work. I don’t use that word lightly, but these early stories show that Capote’s talent and way of experiencing the world was with him from a very young age


Even in translation, Capote’s style is immediately recognizable in the short stories, under the titles “Miss Belle Rankin,” “This Here Is From Jamie,” “Saturday Night” and “The Horror in the Swamp,” laced with his incisive attention to detail and themes of longing for love and acceptance, and the transience of life.

Capote, who died in 1984, at 59, is believed to have written these works between the time he was 11 and 19, although not all are dated.

American Teens Spend 4.2 Minutes Reading on Weekends

My blog today gives another glimpse into American youths' reading habits. In a study by the U.S. Labor Department, Americans between the ages of 15 and 19 spend an average of 4.2 minutes of their weekends and holidays reading.

The research revealed that 20 to 24 year old young people spent an average of 10.2 minutes reading during the weekend and 55 to 64 year olds spend 26.2 minutes on weekend days reading. 

For the most part, the average time spent reading goes up with age, except for the 25 to 34 year olds who only spend an average 7.8 minutes reading on weekends.  

The oldest Americans read for more than an hour a day.  These data include reading for fun, which may be why the student age population is low.  

U.K. Board of Education Cuts American Literature

The British GCSE exam board has dropped U.S. literary classics such as John Steinbeck and Harper Lee from its English Literature syllabus in a move to push for a more British-centric curriculum.

According to the new document issued by the exam board, “students should study a range of high quality, intellectually challenging, and substantial whole texts in detail. These must include:

At least one play by Shakespeare

At least one 19th century novel 2

A selection of poetry since 1789, including representative Romantic poetry, fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards.

John Steinbeck

The change has prompted criticism from writers and readers online, leading many people to believe that the books were banned. British education secretary Michael Gove has defended the move, claiming that the books are not banned.

 “Teachers are as free to introduce children to the brilliant writing of Lee, Steinbeck and Miller today as they were yesterday and nothing this government is doing will change that in the future,” he told The Guardian.

Although the U.S. owes much to the United Kingdom in terms of literature, past and present, I believe removing timeless books such as these from their curriculum will diminish the overall effectiveness of fine literature for this generation of British students.

Print or ebooks--or Both?

For those of us in this writing racket, the discourse on print vs eBooks will not subside.  Enthusiasts on both sides of the issue are always willing to defend their positions without wavering.  The majority of authors that I have talked to feel there is a place for both delivery systems.

In fact, within the past week, Harper Lee, author of the evergreen children's novels, To Kill a Mockingbird has given permission for the book to be released in eBook form.

Below are some interesting statistics concerning the rise of eBooks.  Have a look.

According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) StatShot report for the first month of 2014, publishers saw total trade eBook sales increase 12.8 percent compared to the prior year.

The report looked at net revenues for 1218 publishers in January 2014. The AAP also revealed that the Children’s and Young Adult category grew by 65.1 percent in eBooks and 53.7 percent in hardcovers during the month. Check it out, “The entire C/YA category, all formats, grew by +43.7% vs the previous year.”

The AAP chart embedded below shows total net revenue for January 2014 versus January 2013 broken out by category.

Paddington Bear is Back!

Michael Bond, author of Paddington Bear, is bringing back the children’s book character Paddington Bear in a new collection of letters written from the bear to his Aunt Lucy.Love from Paddington will be published by by HarperCollins in November.

 In the book, the Peruvian bear will recount his world travels and tell how he arrived at Paddington Station in London. In the book, he will also reveal how he met the Brown family and came to live with them.

Paddington books have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. He first appeared on October 13, 1958 and was subsequently featured in more than twenty books written by Michael Bond and first illustrated by Peggy Fortnum.

He is always polite—addressing people as "Mr", "Mrs", and "Miss" and very rarely by first names—and well-meaning, though he inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval. He has an endless capacity for getting into trouble, but he is known to "try so hard to get things right". 

The new book comes as a film adaptation of the book is also in the works. The film, directed by Paul King and starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, is slated for release in December.

Watch It, Read It,Tweet It!

I am writing a different kind of post today, different in that I am sharing with my readers something that is so very timely and interesting but not necessarily only about the world of children's literature.  Please have a look at the infographic below, as it is a wealth of information dealing with our age of instant communication. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

InkHouse and GMI, a Lightspeed Research company, have created an infographic called:  Watch It, Read It or Tweet It: How Americans View and Share News, which explores how readers consume news.

The graphic features new research that delves into American news consumption. According to the survey, 60 percent of Americans read or watch 3 to 10 news stories a day. The research also revealed that 56 percent of those surveyed still pay for a print news subscription and 68 percent of those people subscribe to a local newspaper.

So where will all of this technology lead us? And what real meaning does it have for kids and their books? Quite a lot, with more to come. I'd love to hear from you.  After all, you've many ways to communicate...

Michelangelo's Artistic Grocery List Gives Shopping a Whole New Meaning

Michelangelo, the greatest painters and architects of the Italian Renaissance and possibly of all times, seems to have taken his skills into his kitchen as well as his studio. His works include the David and Pieta statues.


Not only did he paint frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, his grocery lists are masterpieces as well.

Bibliokelpt has posted an imagine of one of the artist's grocery lists which included detailed text, as well as drawings to help illustrate to his assistants what to pick at the market.

It may have been fun to go to the local outdoor market with Michelangelo's masterpiece grocery list. What one wouldn't want to do, though, is cross out each item as it was purchased! 

Ernest Hemingway's Advice to a Young Writer

What words of wisdom would you give to a new writer?  Perhaps to write every day?  Write what you know?  Try to build a world for your characters?  All these would be appropriate advice. 

Interestingly, in October 1925, a young writer named Ernest Hemingway wrote a letter to a younger Canadian author named Morley Callaghan.

Callaghan was frustrated with his writing life and wrote to his friend: “Have a lot of time and could go a good deal of writing if I knew how I stood.”

Hemingway’s response is included in volume two of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, out this month. It is terrific advice for writers of any age…

Christ don’t be an ass and say you could go on and write if you know how you stand etc. God knows you’re in the most depressing and discouraging surroundings–but that’s what makes a writer. You have to catch hell. You’ve got to take punishment … Write a lot–but see a lot more. Keep your ears and eyes going and try all the time to get your conversations right.

        Never one to mince words, Hemingway called them as he saw them.  This, of course, was no exception.  The other question then is :  What happened to Morley Callaghan?   He was apparently concerned late in life that people would remember him for one minor achievement: the little Canadian had knocked down the macho Ernest Hemingway in a boxing match refereed by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Although Callaghan preferred to be known for his novels, it's his short stories that are his lasting legacy. Along with the fact that he knocked down Hemingway in a boxing match refereed by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Scary Halloween Books to Download for Free!

Looking for some scary books to get in the Halloween mood? Below, GalleyCat  (Jason Boog) has collected 25 free scary books you can download right now.   How much scary fun is that! 

Have a look at the video at the end of the post!

In 2010, novelist Neil Gaiman created the “All Hallow’s Read,” literary holiday, a night to give someone you love a scary book. The writer explained the new tradition in the video embedded above–here’s more from the official site:

Obviously, we support bookshops and authors, but more than that, this is about making a holiday tradition of book-giving. So feel free to give second-hand books or books from your own shelves. And feel just as free to buy a beautiful new book from a small independent bookseller, or from online or… look, there’s no wrong way to buy a book. You can even gift it to their Kindle … If you do not know what scary book to give someone, talk to a bookseller or a librarian. They like to help. Librarians will not mind even if you admit that you are not planning to take out a book, but instead you are going to buy one and give it to someone.

Top 25 Free Horror eBooks on Project Gutenberg

1. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker

3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

4. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

5. The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs

6. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

7. The Vampyre; a Tale by John William Polidori

8. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

9. Varney the Vampire by Thomas Preskett Prest

10. The Monk; a romance by M. G. Lewis

11. The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood

12. Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker

13. Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker

14. The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

15. Wieland: or, the Transformation, an American Tale by Charles Brockden Brown

16. Edgar Huntly by Charles Brockden Brown

17. The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker

18. The Beetle by Richard Marsh

19. The House of the Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck

20. The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker

21. The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce

22. The Damned by Algernon Blackwood

23. The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

24. Clarimonde by Théophile Gautier

25. Curious, if True by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell