The Shreveport area chapter of the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the world

Red River Pulpwood Queens

November Newsletter
By: Carey Weeks November 18, 2010

Bram Stoker and Loving Dracula: Book Selection -

Karen Essex’s Dracula In Love
Bram Stoker was born in Dublin,
Ireland, November 1847. Bram was
a sickly child and not expected to
survive, spending his first eight years
of life in bed. Although the cause of
Upcoming Events: his disease remained unknown he
made a total recovery and entered
• Nov. 20, 2010— Trinity College, Dublin, at age 16
Holiday Open House, where he developed into a star
Beauty and the Book athlete. He decided to become a
drama critic, and a November 1871
9am-5pm., Jefferson,
review by him was published in the
TX. Goodies, hot
Dublin Mail for whom he wrote,
cider, and door prizes. unpaid, for five years. It was at this
time that he read Joseph Sheridan Le
• Dec. 5, 2010—
Fanu's vampire story, Carmilla, that
6:30pm Pulpwood
was to pique his interest in the sub-
Queens Christmas ject. After writing a review of Henry
Party, Austin Street Irving in Hamlet in 1876, he met the
Bistro, Jefferson, TX. great actor for whom he began to
Tickets $30. Special work part time. In 1878 Stoker
guest Susan Gregg married Florence Anne Lemon
Gilmore (Looking for Balcombe, who had recently turned
down a proposal from Oscar Wilde, at
Salvation at the Dairy St. Anne's Church, Dublin. Shortly
Queen) thereafter he accepted an offer to
become Irving's manager at the
• Jan. 13-16, 2010—
Lyceum Theatre and moved to Lon-
Girlfriend Weekend don with his wife. During the next 27
Author Extravaganza. years, until Irving's death, Stoker
Program in December became the actor's friend and
Newsletter. confidant and faithfully made all the
arrangements for him and his
company. Around 1890 Stoker
began work on an untitled vampire
novel that eventually became
known as The Un-Dead. It was just
before publication, May 26, 1897
that the title became Dracula. On
Oct 13, 1905 Henry Irving died.
Stoker, arriving two minutes after
his death, closed the actors eyes for
the last time. Stoker himself “I feel myself
suffered a stroke, and his health quite wild
and finances went downhill. with
Although Dracula sold, it was not excitement. I
successful enough to reverse his suppose one
fortunes. He also published
ought to pity
Personal Reminiscences of Henry
Irving (1906) and his last novel, The
anything so
Lair of the White Worm (1911). hunted as the
Bram Stoker died in near poverty at Count. That is
his home in London, April 20, 1912. just it. This
He was not to know of the great thing is not
success his Dracula would human, not
enjoy. The cause of death stated on even a beast.”
his death certificate was - (from Mina
"exhaustion." The body was
Harker’s
cremated! Stoker's Dracula's Guest
Diary, Bram
was published posthumously as a
short story in 1914. It consisted of Stoker’s
material omitted because of length Dracula)
by the publisher from the original
manuscript of Dracula.
www.balletmet.org

December Book

Selection
November Magazines Showcase Southern Authors
Two of the South’s best
magazines are delighting
readers with articles about
some of our favorite
authors. Southern Living
has an eight page spread
about Fannie Flagg and
her hometown of
Both Southern Living and Birmingham, Alabama.
The Imperfectioinists
Texas Highways are on The Southern Journal
By: Tom Rachman newsstands now! column at the end of the
issue is written by Pulitzer
Prize winning Rick
Bragg.
The November issue of
Texas Highways, I am
happy to announce, show-
cases our own Queen
Kathy Patrick and her
fabulous shop Beauty and
the Book.
PAGE 2
Book News
Movie Adaptation
Titanic actor Leonardo
DiCaprio will be playing a
real-life 19th Century serial
killer in the film adaptation
of Erik Larson’s novel Devil
in the White City. T]he
film follows both the
planning and execution of
the mass murders, which
take place during the city’s
most profound moment
on the world’s stage. In the
film, DiCaprio plays the
murder-minded H.H.
Holmes, a cavalier charlatan
who takes advantage of
somewhere between 27 and
200 people, mostly single
young women, to develop a
lucrative personal cadaver-
disposal system. (GalleyCat)
Joyce Does It Again!
Artspace in downtown
Shreveport will soon be
showcasing the art and
creation of MOONBOT
Studios’ short film The
Fantastic Flying Books of
Morris Lessmore. Creator
William Joyce has called this
piece a love letter to books.
Jane Austen
November Literary Birthdays
Albert Camus—Nov. 7, 1913
(The Stranger; The Plague)
Margaret Mitchell—Nov. 8, 1900
(Gone with the Wind)
Bram Stoker—Nov. 8, 1847
(Dracula; The Lady of the White
Shroud)
Robert Louis Stevenson—Nov.
13, 1850 (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde)
C. S. Lewis—Nov. 29, 1898
(The Screwtape Letters; The
Chronicles of Narnia)
R E D R I V E R P U LP WO O D Q U E E N S N O V E M B E R N E WS LE T T E R B Y : C A R E Y WE E K S
Scholars Attack Jane Austin "In particular, the high degree of
Jane Austen, one of the greatest novelists polished punctuation and epigrammatic
in English literature, had her work heavily style we see in 'Emma' and 'Persuasion'
altered by a male editor to sort out the
is simply not there," Sutherland said
mess of her original manuscripts,
according to an expert. Professor Kathryn after studying the originals.
Sutherland studied 1,100 original hand-
written pages of Austen's unpublished "This suggests somebody else was
writings and concluded that her efforts heavily involved in the editing process
had been polished up to correct her bad between manuscript and printed book.
grammar and spelling.
"Letters between Austen's publisher
"It's widely assumed that Austen was a John Murray II and his talent scout and
perfect stylist -- her brother Henry editor William Gifford, acknowledging
famously said in 1818 that 'everything the untidiness of Austen's style and how
came finished from her pen' and
Gifford will correct it, seem to identify
commentators continue to share this view
today," the Oxford University academic Gifford as the culprit."
said.
Murray was Austen's publisher for the
"But in reading the manuscripts, it quickly last two years of her career, overseeing
becomes clear that this delicate precision "Emma", the second edition of
is missing. "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion".
"'Sense and Sensibility', 'Pride and
"Austen's unpublished manuscripts Prejudice' and the first edition of
unpick her reputation for perfection in 'Mansfield Park' were not published by
various ways: we see blots, crossings out,
Murray and have previously been seen
messiness -- we see creation as it happens,
and in Austen's case, we discover a by some critics as examples of poor
powerful counter-grammatical way of printing," Sutherland said.
writing. She broke most of the rules for
writing good English." "In fact, the style in these novels is much
closer to Austen's manuscript
hand." (article from Yahoo! News)
The first ever Film Festival to be held Sunday as
the Grand Finale of our 11th Anniversary
Girlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza! Yes,
add to your calendar our 50th Anniversary
tribute to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird'!
Features: Author Kerry Madden of Up Close:
Harper Lee; Author and Independent Film and
Television Writer/Producer, Mary Murphy of
Scout, Atticus, and Boo. Films include: Hey Boo;
On Mockingbird; and the iconic film To Kill A
Scarlett O’Hardy’s Gone with
Mockingbird. Tickets $25
the Wind Museum in Jefferson,
Texas has the largest private
collection of Gone with the Wind
memorabilia.
Mark Twain—Nov. 30, 1835
(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;
Adventures of Tom Sawyer)