RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Edgar Allan Poe apologizes to his publishers for drinking too much and asks them to buy an article because he's "desperately pushed for money" in an 1842 letter acquired by the University of Virginia for an exhibition marking the author's 200th birthday.
Writing from Philadelphia, Poe blames his friend William Ross Wallace, a poet and lawyer, for making him drink too many "juleps" and for misbehaving on a visit to New York.
The university bought the July 18, 1842, letter in a Sotheby's auction after the document spent years in private hands. University officials declined to disclose the price, but said it was purchased with endowment funds.
"Will you be so kind enough to put the best possible interpretation upon my behaviour while in N-York?," Poe asks New York publishers J. and Henry G. Langley. "You must have conceived a queer idea of me — but the simple truth is that Wallace would insist upon the juleps, and I knew not what I was either doing or saying."
He closes the letter expressing his hopes that he'll see the Langleys again "under better auspices." The enclosed article was rejected, but published elsewhere later that year.
The letter was first disclosed in an American literary magazine in 1957, according to the 2008 edition of "The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe." It was formerly in a private collection and, before the U.Va. acquisition, most recently purchased at auction by an undisclosed buyer for $26,000 in May 1988, according to Chris Sentner, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond.
The U.Va. Library released the letter this week ahead of an exhibit opening Saturday that highlights Poe's enduring literary works, brief life and mysterious death at the age of 40. Poe attended the Charlottesville university, but had to drop out after less than a year in part because of financial difficulties, which plagued him the rest of his life.
"From Out That Shadow: the Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe" is being held in honor of the 200th anniversary of the author's birth on January 19, 1809. It features more than 100 items related to Poe, including manuscripts of his iconic works such as "The Raven," original artwork and personal belongings including his writing desk and portraits of Poe and his mother.
The exhibit runs through Aug. 1, then will open at the University of Texas.
Poe is credited with writing the first modern detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which appeared in 1841 in Graham's Magazine, where Poe worked an editor. It became the template for subsequent mystery stories, including the Sherlock Holmes works.
The writer's other macabre works include "The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Pit and the Pendulum," which have frightened generations of readers and reflected Poe's struggles with depression, difficulties with drinking, and the loss of key figures in his life.
U.Va. exhibits Poe letter apologizing for drinking
Saturday, March 7, 2009
“I had one shot at this. And I knew if I didn’t do it, it was gonna be dead forever.”
J. Michael Straczynski has 10 different feature projects in various stages of development, all of them launched in the two years since he sold his first spec feature, “Changeling,” to Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Before that Joe, as he is called, worked in television, for which he created the long-running cult hit “Babylon 5.” He talks with Eric Estrin about trying to sell what people aren’t buying and about gritting your teeth until it hurts.
“Babylon 5” took five years, because at that time, no American space-based science-fiction series had gone more than two seasons in 25 years, so the odds were completely against us.
For five years it went from network to studio to studio to production company, and it was just no, no and by the way, no -- we’ve tried this before, it’s not gonna work. “Star Trek” owns the playing field. It took five years to find two guys -- one at Warner Brothers and one at Chris-Craft stations, at that time, who got it and said, Look, we’re gonna be creating this new network called PTEN, why don’t you come and present it to the group?
I went to the meeting and, like 30 different shows were being created in front of these studio executives over a period of like a week -- and I had one shot at this. And I knew if I didn’t do it, it was gonna be dead forever. I was waiting to go on, and I was grinding my teeth so hard I literally shattered a molar straight down into the root. When I breathed, I saw colors I never saw before.
They said to me you have to go home; you can’t pitch in this condition. And I said, If I come back after they’ve heard all 30 pitches, forget it. So I got a big old tumbler of ice water and held it there to numb the tooth with tears coming down my face.
So I went out there to give the presentation -- and I had rubber-tongue. I was numb from the ice; I could barely talk. But somehow they got it, and we got the series out of it.
But even after “Babylon 5,” when I wrote “Changeling,” all the studios that we went to didn’t know who the hell I was. I went from meeting to meeting to meeting, and with very, very few exceptions, no one knew whether I was 20 years old or 50 years old; no one knew if it was my first script or 10,000th script. The encouraging thing to writers is … they didn’t care. It really came down to the words on the page.
Of course, when Ron Howard bought it, and then when Clint Eastwood came on board, it’s like someone taps you on the head with a magic wand, and you go from invisible to visible. Suddenly, you know, there wasn’t any problem getting read by anybody in town.
CREDIT: The Wrap
Franco has sold a collection of short stories
James Franco, the hot young actor who won an Indie Spirit Award a couple of weeks ago for his work in "Milk," is about to be a published writer. Franco has sold a collection of short stories to the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster. His powerhouse agent, Richard Abate, of Endeavor, confirmed it yesterday. This is great news for Franco, who’s enrolled in the graduate creative writing department at New York University and is also taking writing classes at Columbia. At age 30, he takes his writing career seriously, and has even turned down acting work to continue with his education. Publishing also runs in the family. Franco’s mom, Betsy Franco, is a well known bestselling children’s book author. It’s unknown how much Scribner’s paid, or when the book will be published. Franco still has this semester and at least all of next year to go in the writing programs. Certainly, the celebrity value of his name will help sell books. But Scribner is a quality imprint; they wouldn’t have taken the stories if they didn’t think they were good. Franco is keeping his acting life literary, too. He’s just signed to play late poet Allen Ginsburg in Howl, a film about Ginsberg’s obscenity trial for the poem of the same name.
Auctioneer to sell score to Hitchcock's 'Psycho'
LONDON – The heart-stopping score to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," including the screeching music to the film's famous shower scene, is being put up for sale, British auction house Bonhams said Tuesday.
The 20-page manuscript is among a collection of composer Bernard Herrmann's works and books being auctioned off on March 24.
The score, about half of which was written in black ink on Ricordi music paper, carries the notes to the slashing, shrieking violin sounds that play when a knife-wielding killer bursts in on actress Janet Leigh as she showers in the Bates Motel.
The shower stabbing scene in Hitchcock's 1960 thriller stands out as the movie's most memorable scene, in large part because of Herrmann's startling sound.
The icy noise of a bow being repeatedly sliced across strings deftly mirrored the stabbing of the titular psychopath's knife, but Hermann said the cue was extremely simple.
"Violins did it!" Herrmann was quoted as saying in an extract from the book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of 'Psycho'" carried by Bonhams.
"It's just the strings doing something every violinist does all day long when he tunes up," Herrmann said. "The effect is as common as rocks."
Bonhams said Tuesday that the score was expected to go for up to $56,000. It was consigned for sale by Herrmann's third wife, Norma.
On the Net: http://www.bonhams.com/
Zwick hooks 'Heart' for next project
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Director Edward Zwick has hooked a whale of a tale for his likely next film.
New Regency has set the helmer to direct "In the Heart of the Sea," the fact-based tale of Nantucket whaling ship the Essex, which was stalked and ultimately destroyed by a sperm whale in 1820. Stranded thousands of miles from home, the crew struggled to survive; they were lost at sea for 90 days. Eight were rescued.
Zwick wrote the script with Bedford Falls partner Marshall Herskovitz. They will produce with Paula Weinstein, with Palak Patel exec producing.
New Regency is honing the scriptand has begun planning this logistically ambitious period tale on the open water. The hope is to begin production late this year, with Fox distributing.
Pic is based on the National Book Award-winning title by Nathaniel Philbrick. The sinking of the whaleship Essex was the inspiration for Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."
Philbrick's book, first optioned by Intermedia in 2000, is one of two whale tales on the hook for features: Universal is developing "Moby Dick," a reimagining of the Melville novel for "Wanted" helmer Timur Bekmambetov to direct.
Bill Condon Doesn't Want To Release His Richard Pryor Biopic With Eddie Murphy During Oscar Season
Thinking Bill Condon's Richard Pryor biopic starring Eddie Murphy at Fox Searchlight has potential Oscar gold written all over it?
It's possible, but Condon apparently wants none of it having already suffered through Oscar snub in 2006 when "Dreamgirls" was nominated for 8 awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, but came up shorthanded save for Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson) and Sound Mixing.
According to Kris Tapley, "Condon apparently has said he wants an August 2010 release for the film and Fox Searchlight has agreed to it. One of Condon’s stipulations when it came to this film is a release date far away from the Oscar season fray, which left the director dizzy and probably disenchanted during the 2006 run for “Dreamgirls.”
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