BOOKPATHS

Bookpath: Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, Florida, Missouri

Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, was born in a cabin in the tiny village of Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, the third of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens’ four children who survived into adulthood. The family lived in Florida until 1939 when they moved thirty miles east to Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Twain is remembered in Florida at the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site. A red granite monument marks the cabin’s original location. Visitors can see the preserved two-room cabin in the historic site’s museum, along with exhibits and audio-visual programs interpreting Twain’s extraordinary life. On view are first editions of Twain’s work; a handwritten copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; furnishings from his Hartford, Connecticut home; and a public reading room. The 2,775-acre Mark Twain State Park surrounds the historic site inviting access to oak, hickory and maple woodlands and Mark Twain Lake.

The Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. November through March and from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily April through October. It’s closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days. For additional information, visit the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site website.

My parents removed to Missouri in the early 'thirties; I do not remember just when, for I was not born then and cared nothing for such things. It was a long journey in those days, and must have been a rough and tiresome one. The home was made in the wee village of Florida, in Monroe County, and I was born there in 1835. The village contained a hundred people and I increased the population by 1 per cent. It is more than many of the best men in history could have done for a town. It may not be modest in me to refer to this, but it is true. There is no record of a person doing as much--not even Shakespeare. But I did it for Florida, and it shows that I could have done it for any place--even London, I suppose. – from Mark Twain’s Autobiography

The photograph is from the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site website.

New York Times 10 Best Books of 2006

The New York Times has chosen its 10 Best Books of 2006.

Fiction

Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud

The Lay of the Land, by Richard Ford

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl

Nonfiction

Falling Through the Earth: a Memoir, by Danielle Trussoni

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright

Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan

The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart

Bookpath: Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (various editions)

A tour of Orchard House transports visitors to nineteenth century Concord and into the pages of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Amos Bronson Alcott purchased the Concord property in 1858 with financial assistance from Ralph Waldo Emerson and other friends. Born on November 29, 1832, Louisa May Alcott lived at Orchard House from 1858 to 1877, writing Little Women there in 1868, inspired by family and home for her characters and setting. Today, Orchard House is much as it was during the Alcotts' residency. There have been no major structural changes since the Alcotts' time and “approximately 75% of the furnishings” were owned by them.

Orchard House is open year-round except on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January 1-15. During December, Orchard House celebrates “A Very Dickens Christmas,” “inspired by one of Louisa May Alcott’s favorite authors.”

For information on Orchard House and the Alcott family, visit The Orchard House website.

Related Website

Little Women Online Edition

“Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and `fall into a vortex', as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace. Her `scribbling suit' consisted of a black woolen pinafore on which she could wipe her pen at will, and a cap of the same material, adorned with a cheerful red bow, into which she bundled her hair when the decks were cleared for action. This cap was a beacon to the inquiring eyes of her family, who during these periods kept their distance, merely popping in their heads semi-occasionally to ask, with interest, Does genius burn, Jo? They did not always venture even to ask this question, but took an observation of the cap, and judged accordingly. If this expressive article of dress was drawn low upon the forehead, it was a sign that hard work was going on, in exciting moments it was pushed rakishly askew, and when despair seized the author it was plucked wholly off, and cast upon the floor, and cast upon the floor. At such times the intruder silently withdrew, and not until the red bow was seen gaily erect upon the gifted brow, did anyone dare address Jo.” – from Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

2006 Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Book Awards)

The 2006 Costa Book Awards shortlist has been announced.

Costa First Novel Award

The Amnesia Clinic, by James Scudamore

Cloth Girl, by Marilyn Heward Mills

The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox

The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney

Costa Novel Award

Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell

A Spot of Bother, by Mark Haddon

Saving Caravaggio, by Neil Griffiths

Restless, by William Boyd

Costa Children's Book Award

Clay, by David Almond

The Diamond of Drury Lane, by Julia Golding

Set in Stone, by Linda Newbery

Just in Case, by Meg Rosoff

Costa Poetry Award

Dear Room, by Hugo Williams

Letter to Patience, by John Haynes

District and Circle, by Seamus Heaney

The Book of Blood, by Vicki Feaver

Costa Biography Award

Keeping Mum, by Brian Thompson

Nabeel's Song, by Jo Tatchell

Donne: A Reformed Soul, by John Stubbs

George Mackay Brown: The Life, by Maggie Fergusson

“The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.” For information on the 2006 nominees, visit the Costa Book Awards website.

Bookpath: Ohio

My Home is Far Away, by Dawn Powell (South Royalton, Vermont : Steerforth Press, 1999)

While working on her novel, A Time to Be Born, Dawn Powell came down with a fever that “brought back so many childhood memories with such brilliant clarity” she began writing, “from 3 to 5 am,” what would become My Home is Far Away. The “most precisely autobiographical” of her novels, My Home is Far Away places readers in small-town Ohio at the turn of the century where the young Marcia Willard, five-years-old when the novel begins, faces both family and cultural struggles.

Dawn Powell was born in Mount Gilead, Ohio on November 28, 1896. During her life, she wrote fifteen novels. Six are considered her “Ohio novels,” “melancholy and compassionate in their depiction of frustrated lives.” In recent years there’s been a revival of Powell’s work, including two volumes published by The Library of America.

Related Websites

Steerforth Press Website

The Library of America

“This was the month of cherries and peaches, of green apples beyond the grape arbor, of little dandelion ghosts in the grass, of sour grass and four-leaf clovers, of still dry heat holding the smell of nasturtiums and dying lilacs. This was the best month of all and the best day. It was not birthday, Easter, Christmas, or picnic, but all these things and something else, smething wonderful, something utterly unknown. The two little girls in embroidered white Sunday dresses knew no way to express their secret joy but by whirling each other dizzily over the lawn crying, ‘We’re moving, we’re moving! We’re moving to London Junction.'” – from My Home is Far Away, by Dawn Powell

Margalit Fox remembers novelist Bebe Moore Campbell who died Monday at age 56.

“Despite the subject matter of her books, Ms. Campbell expressed hope about the future of American race relations. In an interview with The New York Times in 1995, she described her motivation for writing Brothers and Sisters, the story of the friendship between a black banker and her white colleague.

‘It was my attempt to bridge a racial gap,’ Ms. Campbell said. ‘That’s the story that never gets told: how many of us really like each other, respect each other.’” – from “Bebe Moore Campbell, Novelist of Black Lives, Dies at 56,” by Margalit Fox, The New York Times

2006 National Outdoor Book Awards

The winners of the 2006 National Outdoor Book Awards were recently announced.

History/Biography Category

The Last Season, by Eric Blehm

Outdoor Literature Category

Being Caribou, by Karsten Heuer

Natural History Literature

Condor : to the Brink and Back, by John Nielsen

Nature and Environment Category

Life in the Underground, by David Attenborough

Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya, by David Zurick and Julsun Pacheco

Honorable mention
Carving Grand Canyon : Evidence, Theories, and Mystery, by Wayne Ranney

Design and Artistic Merit

Wings of Spring : Courtship, Nesting and Fledging, photographs by Tom Vezo; text by Chuck Hagner

100 Caterpillars, by Jeffrey C. Miller, Daniel H. Janzen and Winifred Hallwachs

Children’s Category

Kelly of Hazel Ridge, by Robbyn Smith van Frankenhuysen; illustrations by Gijsbert van Frankenhuysen

Gaia Girls Enter the Earth, by Lee Welles

Instructional Category

Extreme Kids : How to Connect with Your Children through Today’s Extreme (and No So Extreme) Outdoor Sports, by Scott Graham

Outdoor Adventure Guidebook Category

The Middle Fork of the Salmon River : a Comprehensive Guide, by Matt Leidecker

Nature Guidebook Category

Yellowstone Expedition Guide : the Modern Way to Explore America’s Oldest National Park, by Charissa Reid

Caterpillars of Eastern North America, by David L. Wagner

Classic Category

Sleeping Island : a Journey to the Edge of the Barrens, by P. G. Downes

For information on this year’s and previous winners visit the National Outdoor Book Awards website.

Moscow, Russia

Peter Ackroyd “digs through the layers of modern Moscow to reveal the dark, passionate ghosts of Dostoevsky, Gogol and Pushkin. Read part one of his journey.

“Around the church the settlement of wooden houses, variously painted green and blue and yellow, looks ancient. It might be a community of serfs or “souls”, and in fact the inhabitants fulfil all my expectations of serfs — the sturdy and healthy children, the strong and capacious women, the somewhat emaciated men sporting a week’s worth of stubble. One of the streets is named Dostoevsky Street, adding to the illusion. But these apparently ancient houses were built in the 1940s or 1950s; they seem to be old because they follow closely the old models. It is one way that 'old' Russia survives.” – from “Undercover in Mother Russia,” by Peter Ackroyd, The Times

December Literary Events

"To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company." -- Andre Gide

United States

New York

Nineteenth Annual Independent and Small Press Fair
Saturday and Sunday, December 2-3, 2006
Manhattan

"The Book Fair is one of the most notable literary events of the year. With over one hundred cutting edge presses from the U.S and abroad, exhibiting some of the most distinguished books in contemporary literature, and another hundred showcasing their titles, the Fair truly highlights the diversity and wealth of the independent publishing world today. The 2005 Fair drew nearly 3,000 visitors, and 115 of the nation's most well-respected independents."

Too Many to List
All the Christmas Carol and other book-related holiday performances in communities near you. Look for them.

"Read books. They are good for us." -- Natalie Goldberg

Canada’s 2006 Governor General’s Literary Awards

Canada’s 2006 Governor General’s Literary Awards have been announced.

Fiction

The Law of Dreams, by Peter Behrens

La rivière du loup, by Andrée Laberge

Poetry

Stumbling in the Bloom, by John Pass

Ravir : les lieux, by Hélène Dorion

Drama

I Still Love You, by Daniel MacIvor

Désordre public, by Évelyne de la Chenelière

Nonfiction

The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism, by Ross King

À force de voir : histoire de regards, by Pierre Ouellet

Children’s Literature – Text

Pirate’s Passage, by William Gilkerson

Je suis fou de Vava, by Dany Laferrière

Children’s Literature – Illustration

Ancient Thunder, written and illustrated by Leo Yerxa

Le gros monstre qui aimait trop lire, illustrated by Rogé Girard; text by Lili Chartrand

Translation

Vetiver, by Joël Des Rosiers; translated by Hugh Hazelton

Un jardin de papier, translated by Sophie Voillot (French translation of Salamander, by Thomas Wharton)

For more information, visit The Canada Council for the Arts website.

“This year marks the 70th presentation of the Governor General’s Literary Awards, Canada’s oldest and most prestigious award for English- and French-language Canadian literature.” – from The Canada Council for the Arts website