Saving French Indies, A New FSG President, and Old Book Smell: This Week in Book News

A woman won a million-euro writing prize . . . then turned out to be three men.

This week, the winner of the Planeta Prize, a Spanish 1-million-euro literary award, was announced: Carmen Mola, a famously private crime thriller writer.

Beloved is now a detail in the Virginia election-for the dumbest possible reason.

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin is running an attack ad against Governor Terry McAuliffe featuring a mother that says McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would let parents protect their children from reading explicit materials in schools.

The Believer magazine will stop publishing after its spring 2022 issue.

Today, the Black Mountain Institute in the UNLV College of Liberal Arts announced in a press release that it would discontinue the publication of its beloved literary and arts magazine, The Believer . According to the release, “the decision is part of a strategic realignment within the college and BMI as it emerges from the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

A super-rare first folio fragment of Shakespeare’s Henry IV is up for auction.

Rejoice, Shakespeare enthusiasts with money to spare: an extremely rare First Folio fragment, of Shakespeare’s The First Part of Henry the Fourth, will be auctioned by Holabird Western Americana Collections on October 29th. Bidders can participate both live and online -a rare opportunity for Folio collectors.

Who will buy the £80,000 watch from James Joyce’s Ulysses?

Big news for fans of James Joyce, or of time: the pocket watch worn by John O’Connell in James Joyce’s Ulysses is going up for auction at Bonhams on November 4th. The 18-carat gold watch and chain could fetch £80,000.

Solange has launched a community library of rare books and art by Black creators.

Cool resource alert: Variety has reported that Solange, through her Saint Heron studio, is launching a community library of “esteemed and valuable” books by Black creators. Readers can borrow any book from the collection of rare, author-inscribed and out-of-print literary works to up to 45 days, free of charge in the U.S.

A Scientific Explanation for Your Urge to Sniff Old Books

Inside its dry and musty hull, the smell of old books contains great distances. You sense time travel, of course, but also the soaring aeronautics of ideas. Sometimes a great book sticks the landing, very often they don’t. And sometimes books fail to jump high enough.

Can You Guess These Famous Writers Based on Their Very First Author Bios?

One of my favorite things to do in used bookstores is to pick up old editions of early books by now-famous writers, just to see what kind of packaging their books received when they were just starting out. Turns out that some of the biggest names in English-language literature also began their careers with scant author bios, tepid reviews, and random blurbs!