Forthcoming Titles (Summer-Fall 2012)

I've just posted our forthcoming volumes for Summer-Fall 2012:

http://blog.loa.org/2012/02/forthcoming-from-library-of-america.html

A lot of you have asked me about the novels that will be included in the science-fiction collection, and you'll find them listed here.

Not included in this list is "Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories," which will appear very early in 2013.

It's going to be Christmas in September for me with that Little House set!

Thanks for posting the list, David.

I was expecting the SF collection to be short fiction. Excited to see it is a novel collection!

The forthcoming volumes look very exciting, especially the antislavery writings.

Hope they include the writings of John Brown.

>4 Texaco:

There are two selections by John Brown: a letter and a speech.

John Brown's Body.

Right on and thank you David, I look forward to it!!

Hope to also see Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner in the volume.

edited

Certainly one of the most important figures in the history of the US, Brown remains one of the most enigmatic. "Osawatomie" Brown was hated as much as he was revered by even anti-slavery forces throughout the country. It is difficult to reconcile the nobility of his efforts to end slavery with the barbarism of his actions in the Potawatomie massacre. Stephen Vincent Benet's poem, the most notable portrayal of the effects of Brown's history acknowledges this problem:

"You can weigh John Brown's body well enough
But how and in what balance weigh John Brown?"

I'm reminded that writings on John Brown are included in Thoreau: Collected Essays and Poems as follows:

1) A Plea for Captain John Brown (page 396)

2) Martyrdom of John Brown (page 418)

3) The Last Days of John Brown (page 422)

This is one of my most esteemed LOA volumes, an absolute gem!!

Nice to see Laura Ingalls Wilder's novels making the cut. This is a much needed compilation.

Excitement reigns! New books. I am especially looking forward to the War of 1812 readings and the science fiction books.

At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing as a $5 paperback is a steal. But why was it chosen as a paperback? Seems like an odd choice.

Although I'm not a sci-fi fan per se, I'm intrigued by the synopses for More Than Human and The Shrinking Man. One Amazon reviewer said More Than Human was comparable to Faulkner. Hmm...

>12 bretflet: One Amazon reviewer said More Than Human was comparable to Faulkner. Hmm...

I wonder in what way? More Than Human is a reworking of earlier shorter fiction, somewhat in the vein of Go Down, Moses but I can't see any other similarities. Certainly not in prose style.

The Shrinking Man is the only one of these I would want. I'm not a fan of speculative fiction, and may be shortchanging the other authors here--I've only read Matheson's and Sturgeon's books--but The Shrinking Man is one of those stories that get under your skin and still resonate many years later.

Very happy about the Laura Wilder books--will these be illustrated?

13> That's exactly what I was going to ask, Django. I'm hoping the Little House books include the Garth Williams illustrations.

>14 CurrerBell:
Same here!

>13 Django6924:

Full quote from
Amazon review:

"I was already a Sturgeon fan before reading More Than Human, but even I almost scoffed at comparisons of this novel with the work of William Faulkner (my literary hero). Much to my surprise, though, there is indeed a Faulknerian aspect to this novel. The narrative radiates traces of stream of consciousness and moves quietly back and forth in time from place to place as it approaches the essence of a philosophical revelation from multiple levels."

Django6924 it seems you didn't see any of that in More Than Human. Oh well, perhaps the viewer just had Faulkner on the brain? I'm still intrigued enough to read it one day. I've always wanted to read The Shrinking Man since I saw the 50s film The Incredible Shrinking Man as a little boy. Good times!

> "At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing as a $5 paperback is a steal. But why was it chosen as a paperback?"

The paperback edition of "At the Fights" will be a trade paperback like those we've published for American Movie Critics, Writing New York, and American Food Writing. It won't be part of the Paperback Classics series, which is the series we have been offering to subscribers at $5 each.

We've been reprinting the non-series volumes as trade paperbacks whenever we've been able to acquire the rights to do so.

>13 Django6924: and >14 CurrerBell: and >15 Django6924::

The LOA Wilder edition will be not be illustrated.

(As you may know, the original illustrations were by Helen Sewell; Garth Williams did the illustrations for the 1953 edition.)

>18 DCloyceSmith: I'm actually rather content with the Wilder editions not being illustrated. For me, the illustrations are already in my mind from reading these in my youth. It will be wonderful to crack open a hardbound, LOA edition where Wilder's vivid use of imagery will be the highlight. Excellent choice and long overdue!

>16 bretflet:

Using stream-of-consciousness as a narrative technique in this manner I don't see as an exclusively Faulknerian quality--Laurence Sterne was using it almost 200 years earlier. I suspect that you are 100% correct in thinking the reviewer had Faulkner on the brain; I'm not a big Faulkner fan so I don't. I'm not saying More Than Human isn't worth inclusion in the LOA: Sturgeon was an enormously influential writer and this is by consensus his masterpiece. I liked it, which is quite a recommendation since most speculative fiction leaves me cold and I usually avoid it.

>18 DCloyceSmith:

Well, the stories stand perfectly well on their own, but it would have been great to have the illustrations included in the LOA volumes. I knew that Helen Sewell had illustrated the originals, but I've only seen the Garth Williams' illustrations in the local library's copies. I hope to see the originals sometimes as I like Sewell's work very much. David, did you know she illustrated both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility for the LEC as well as their edition of Emily Dickinson? I always thought it interesting that an artist primarily know as an illustrator of children's books should have been chosen for those assignments.

I am looking forwards with heightened anticipation in getting hold of these new volumes. Thanks to Story of the Week, my interest has been piqued on the War of 1812. The Civil War Stories, seem like a treasure so I will also be adding that to these new books.

In fact it might be a good idea if I refrained from reading the Story of the Week altogether.

Just noted the Little House Set on amazon for $47.25. Bargain.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-House-Books-Collection/dp/159853162X