At Texas Monthly, Mimi Swartz profiles Vivian Stephens, a former editor of romance novels at Dell, a division of Doubleday, who was instrumental in founding the Romance Writers of America before she was pushed out. “Stephens was one of the first to recognize that American women had moved beyond bodice rippers and were ready for something new,” Swartz writes. “In retrospect, the Koppel interview captures Stephens’s personality in microcosm, revealing how she rose through the ranks of romance publishing. She was fearless in the face of challenges—whether it was ridicule or racism—qualities that would serve her well in the world of white male publishing. Others might have been defeated by rejection; Stephens was both accustomed to it and undaunted by it.”
Romance Pioneer Vivian Stephens Gets Her Due
The Persistence of Memory
“How can we trust ourselves? Trust that our skills will return? Trust that this blank document—this one, right now—won’t be our undoing? The previous essay I wrote won’t save me when the blank document stares, and the deadline looms, and the editor lurks, and the readers wait.” Mensah Demary on writing and forgetting.
Getting Directions from Jack Kerouac
Want to retrace Sal and Dean’s On the Road journey? The Placing Literature app lets you explore with your favorite characters by mapping scenes from novels. There are 1,500 destinations currently, but you can add your favorite novels or your own work.
More of the Little Prince
Unpublished pages from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince have been unearthed, and they contain clues to a political reading of the children’s classic.
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Why’d They Burn the Archives?
Did mysterious bureaucrats authorize the destruction of historical documents in North Carolina in order to cover up “a paper trail associated with one or more now-prominent, politically connected NC families that found its wealth and success through theft, intimidation, and outrageous corruption?” That’s Constance Hall Jones’s suspicion. Bonus: Part two, which includes a timeline. (h/t Lydia Kiesling)
Ramadan Kareem!
A belated “Ramadan kareem” to all of our Muslim readers! If you’re looking for some Ramadan-centric reading, the Poetry Foundation has rounded up a selection of poems, podcasts, articles and blog posts that should do the trick.
The Ministry of Fear
“One thing that could have made this story end differently is if the United States had a significant cultural policy. We have a trade policy – we protect industries we value – and we have an anti-trust policy designed to protect consumers. We have arts and humanities endowments that assist institutions. But our cultural policy is mostly to let culture fend for itself in the open market. It works great, but sometimes it doesn’t.” Salon looks at what Amazon, the Penguin-Random House merger, and the imposition of capitalism to culture might mean for literature at large.
I am trying to contact Ms. Vivian Stephens to get names of some of her black romance books. My name is Gloria J, Hart
Please let Vivian Stephens know I am very glad she is being celebrated. Well deserved. And I need to be in touch with her if possible.
Thank you.