"Some results" or "Appologies!"

First of all, an appology seems apporpriate... An appology for not posting anything for quite a long time. As I told you already, with the new year business became quite pressing, so reading kind of stopped for a moment. Only in the last two weeks I started again. First of all I finished

A son of the middle border 

 by Hamlin Garland

in preparation for his 1922 award-winning work

A daughter of the middle border 

which constitutes kind of a second volume.


Today I finally finished the first volume of the first pulitzer-winner

Julia Ward Howe 1819 - 1910

by Laura E. Richards

So you could say, I'm 50 % done. But that's not quite it. Both volumes cover 806 pages, that first volume only reaching 392 pages. So, to be exact I am 48,64 % done :)

To be honest, I am absolutely not satisfied with the volume. So it might be, I have to take a brake and read something else before starting the second volume. It's just a matter of fairness, because otherwise I couldn't rate the books in a fair way. So don't get angry with me. Just be patient! :)

"Here comes the sun" or "The final countdown"

The first post in 2014 is a kind of musical one (it's the Beatles and Europe if I'm not misstaken). That's because I got good news!! The two volumes of

Julia Ward Howe

finally arrived! They were announced for January 6th and came today... The parcle was absolutely wreked/wripped but fortunatelly the books survived the trip over the Atlantic without so much as a scratch.

As I had to work late today, I couldn't yet start reading but the weekend is just arround the corner so, enough time to get started with 826 pages. Those of you who want to follow my progress, just have a look at my Goodreads-Profil. I'll try and updated it every evening (CET).

Question of the day
Who is Julia Ward Howe?

"How to use information" or "The Goodreads-Wikipedia-Symbiosis"

Answer of the (yester-) day:

At the year's end I tend to get a bit philosophical. Let me therefore start today's answer with a question:

Will there be any practical use of this project, other than the enlightenment of the writer himself?

The answer is: There might be.

As I am also a contributor to the German Wikipedia, I'll try to use some of the information gained druing the challenge to pimp the articles on the persons, I read about.

Second "practical" implication of the challenge are of course the reviews on Goodreads. I'll post a "Useful links"-section on every final post an a book (as I already did with The Americanization of Edward Bok), where you'll find the review and some Wikipedia-information on the book is I        

Last but not at all least, I hope, the blog will entertain its readers and perhaps interest them in one of the Pulitzer-Books of course!!

With this, comes the final remark of 2013:

I hope you enjoyed the few post of this year, wish you all the best for the upcoming year 2014 and hope you'll follow my blog in the new year - and enjoy it!!

"Another volume" or "Give me more!"

Answer of the (yester-) day
Lately I started reading

A Son of the Middle Border

 by Hamlin Garland

which is not a Prize-winner and I hope to be finished with it by the end of the year. The inclined reader might ask: Why now is he reading books that are noncompetitive, when there are 97 Prize-winners to read?
Thanks to this inclined reader, I'm able to pose a set of inevitable question:

How should I deal with Prize-winners, that consist of more than one volume?

As I see it, there are mainly two ways: Either to write about each volume seperately or to write about the work as a whole. The latter seems the better, even though, it'll take longer until I can cast the final vote on it. Therefore, if the winner consists of more than one volume (as will be the case right at the beginning with Julia Ward Howe - 2 vol.), you will have to prove some patience, but will get the whole picture!

The second question is a bit more complicated and leads to why I read A son of the Middle Border.

If only one book of a multi-volume biography entered the competition for the Prize (and of course won), should I read the whole set?

Take for example A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland, which was awarded the Prize in 1922. It is the prosecution of A Son of the Middle Border, which Garland wrote in 1917. I decided to read both, to be able to put the winning book in its proper surroundings. That might of course lead to a multiplication of books to read, so it's just a try.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with the questions posed, please let me know!

Question of the day:
How much of the information on a person, contained in his or her biography can you memorize?

1921: The Americanization of Edward Bok

Today marks the first "pre-start" highlight: The first book to be reviewed for the challenge. I'm not yet sure about the general approach of the reviews. Therefore, if you got any suggestions or requests, just let me know.

The answer of the (yester-) day:

As already mentioned the first book I read is

The Americanization Of Edward Bok 

 by Edward Bok
 

The edition

The edition I chose was the free Kindle version. It surely has the disadvantage that it doesn't contain the real page count. There were a few typing errors but as I don't have a printed copy at hand, I can't say if they are already part of the original version. The only thing to be a bit annoying, is the layout for cited letters. Way too much space between the lines makes them quite hard to read. But, as I am generally a positive kind of guy: It was for free, so what's to complain about? :)

The author 

In case of an autobiography, telling you something about the author apart from the content of the book is a bit difficult. Therefore I will just keep to some key facts, so you know who we are talking about:

Edward Bok (1863-1930) was a Dutch-born American who worked in the editing business for over 40 years. He became famous as the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, which he headed for nearly 30 years.

The book and its content

The book tells us about the life of Edward Bok. For his autobiography he chose to write in third person, which is quite uncommon. Right at the beginning he tells the reader that this ows to the fact, that the editor Edward Bok whom this book is about, isn't the same as the then retired Edward Bok writing the book.

As the titel reveals, the book starts with the family immigrating to the United States. Even though we learn something about Boks family, little is said about the family living in the Netherlands. As Bok lost his father quite early, he was the breadwinner for the family in an early age. His first job (while his father was still alive) was to clean the windows of a bakery in his neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Later he worked there as a shop assistant. In his free time, he collected letters from famous persons. He tells quite a few funny stories about how he met some of them in person (as a young boy he dined with Teddy Roosevelt and his wife for example).

His first contact with the publishing business was when he joined Henry Holt and Co., today one of the oldest publishing companies in the U.S., in 1882 as a clerk. While working there, he became interested for the first time with women as readers. At the same time he also started his first own enterprise Bok Syndicate Press, together with brother William. They sold articles to various newspapers, including a special section on topics for women. Two years later he joined Charles Scribner's Sons, where he rose from stenographer to head of the advertising department. There he befriended Frank N. Doubleday, founder of Doubleday Publishing.

In 1889 Cyrus Curtis, owner of the Ladies' Home Journal based in Philadelphia, won Bok as editor. He came to direct the Journal for nearly 30 years. Under his administration the Journal, as first periodical in U.S.-publishing history, toped a circulation of one million. The reader not only learns about Bok's views on a veriety of topics such as architecture, fashion and policits and how he won former Presidents of the United States as writers, but also how the Journal managed during World War I. On the other hand, Bok also shows how, from time to time, he was heavily criticized by his readers, for example for his opposition on aigrettes.

The autobiographical part of the book ends with Boks retirement as an editor in 1919.

As a kind of appendix, Bok spends some thoughts on the question on how american society deals with the integretation of immigrants. That's quite interesting to read from today's perspective. To my readers from the U.S.: Your comments on that one would thouroughly interest me!

The book and the Prize

The book gained to Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1921, shortly after its first edition appeared in 1920.

What I think

One main goal of all this is, of course, to tell you what I think of the book. The way I see it, The Americanization of Edward Bok was the perfect start for the challenge. It deserved the Pulitzer alright! Not only the style of Bok's writting  makes one leap through the book without one moment of hesitation. The story as a whole is a very balanced one with very entertaining anecdotes as well as some serious thoughts. Of course, you have to cut some of the things as self-advertisement of the author. But the way I see it, that is what you get with every autobiography.

The result

As a result, those of you interested in a fun-read and some interest in the history of the U.S. publishing business get the first unconfined recommendation!

Useful links

• The free Kindle version at amazon.de and amazon.com
• Article on Edward Bok on Wikipedia
• My review on Goodreads 

Question of the day

What's next?

"Mr. Pulitzer, tell us more!" or "The hard facts"

Christmas is nearly over, unfortunatelly I have to work between Christmas and New Year. Therefore let's use this day for a post about some facts on the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

The answer of the (yester-) day

Here are some hard facts on the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography:

As of today:

• The Pulitzer Prize is named after the publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911).
   
• The category Biography or Autobiography is one of 22 categories that are currently awarded (another 16 categories were formerly awarded but are not today).
   
• Offered since 1917 the Prize for Biography or Autobiography is, together with five other categories, the oldest denomination currently awarded.
   
• Since 1917 the Prize for Biography or Autobiography was until now awarded 97 times.
   
• 1938 the Prize was split between Odell Shepard and Marquis James
   
• In 1962 the Prize was not awarded at all.
   
• Of the 92 awardees, 14,1 % are women.
   
• Ten authors recived the Prize twice.
   
• The youngest author to recive the Prize was Carleton Mabee, who - when awarded the Prize in 1944 - was just 30.
   
• The oldest author to revive the Prize was Katharine Graham, who - when awarded the Prize in 1998 - was 81.
   
• Twice the Prize was awarded posthumously.
   
• John F. Kennedy, awarded the Prize in 1957, was until now, the only US President to recive the Prize.

I think that will do for today.

Question of the day:
Now, what about Edward Bok's autobiography???

"Merry Christmas!" or "Jumping the Gun"

As I accidentally deleted today's post, here is another try:

First things first:

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I hope you spend some nice days with your loved ones and have some time to relax.

The second thing of today's post is of course

The answer of the (yester-) day:

Those of you, who follow me on Goodreads might already have noticed that, over the last few days I read

The Americanization Of Edward Bok 

 by and about Edward Bok

this book being the 1921 or 5th winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

So I kind of jumped the gun on that one. The good thing is, the challenge gained a bit of advance from the original plan. Therefore it doesn't matter that much, that Richard's Julia Ward Howe will arrive only on January 6th.

I will share my experiences on Bok's book with you in the comming days. For those who are a bit imaptient, I just reviewed the book on Goodreads.

The question of the day (special Christmas-edition):

What is it all about the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography?