Jack Kerouac on the app road

There's a certain poetic justice in the fact that "On the Road" is one of Apple's top grossing book apps. Released on Saturday, the iPad app for Jack Kerouac's landmark novel -- featuring a variety of enriched content, including commentary, maps, audio recordings and other ephemera -- hit No. 4 four on Apple's list on Tuesday, ahead of Bible and T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland." That's a testament to the power of the digital project, but also to the novel, which has occupied a visionary place in the culture since it was first published in 1957.

The decision to bring out "On the Road" as an app has a lot to do with this iconic status, said Stephen Morrison, editor-in-chief of Penguin Books, reached this week by phone at his Manhattan office. "We were looking for a book with enough resonance," Morrison said, "as well as enough supplemental material from which we could learn how to curate a literary app."

The key word there, of course, is "learn," which is what all of us, publishers and writers and readers, must do now as the publishing industry increasingly comes to terms with the digital age. We need to learn how to use the digital space as a vessel, as a container, how to produce and interact with apps and electronic texts that feel like books yet also reflect the possibilities of technology.

"On the Road" aspires to all of this, functioning both as an e-book and also as a source of ancillary information. Open the app, and you'll find a home screen with several subject areas: "The Book," "The Author," "The Trip," "Publication" and "The Beats."

The first, and most important, of these sections features the text of Kerouac's novel, which has been designed to match the feel of a print book.

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Promotional materials for a new rewritten version of Jane Austen's much-loved novel "Pride and Prejudice" arrived today, proclaiming the arrival of a "raunchy new version of the Jane Austen classic!" But wait, there's more:

In this no-holds-barred account, men are not necessarily the only dominating sex. This time Mr. Bingley and his sister both have designs on Mr. Darcy’s manhood; Elizabeth’s dear friend Charlotte marries their family’s strange relation, discovering that her husband’s pious nature extends to worship of a different sort; and, in this telling, Lady Catherine de Bourgh takes the disciplining of those in the parish very seriously. As for the handsome Mr. Wickham, he’s wickeder than ever! And of course there’s plenty of good old-fashioned bodice ripping that shows no pride or prejudice and reveals hot hidden lusts in every scandalous page-turning chapter. This is the book Jane Austen would have written, if only she’d had the nerve!

But... would she? And if she didn't back when she was making those final edits in 1812, must she now?

 

Was it not enough that Austen has already endured the onslaught of zombie hordes? Now, poor "Pride and Prejudice" stands to face something possibly more destructive to the author's Austen-ness: plain old consummation.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: What if Mr. Bennet were looking at a dirty cartoon? He's not -- it's the 2005 version of "Pride and Prejudice." Credit: Alex Bailey / Focus Features

Jacket Copy on the Road: The Jack Kerouac house in Orlando

The good news is I found the Jack Kerouac house in Orlando. The bad news is I didn't get to see inside.

I know: Florida? Jack Kerouac lived in Florida?

In 1957, when "On the Road" was published, Kerouac came to live with his mother in Florida, in her Orlando bungalow in a quiet neighborhood called College Park. He stayed less than a year, but there, during a short and intense stretch not all that different from the one in which he composed "On the Road," he wrote "The Dharma Bums." The original manuscript of "The Dharma Bums" can be found in Orlando's Orange County Historical Museum.

To get to the house I drove around a small lake fronted by lovely older homes in beautiful condition, many two stories tall, one with a vintage car and a Porsche out front. People in boats were fishing. Then I went across a two-lane commercial road onto gridlike streets with houses that were more modest, mostly one-story midcentury concrete block houses and older bungalows. A few of these houses had been torn down for brand new two-story mini-mansions that stretched to the edge of their lots (ugh), but mostly the neighborhood gave the sense of being a community that values its existing structures. People tended gardens, spruced up paint jobs and walked with their kids and dogs under green trees.

Not everyone in College Park knows the Kerouac house. One man told me I should go to a nearby Starbucks and ask them my questions about authors. Another, however, nodded to the gray bungalow where I was standing and said, "That's the writer's house." The detailed "Do Not Disturb" note on the front door confirmed it.

The sign hadn't been posted by a private citizen tired of Kerouac hunters knocking on the door (although they do). It was put there by the Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence Project -- informally, the Kerouac Project -- a bootstrap nonprofit that keeps the house up and, just as important, funds three-month writers residencies in the house.

"I sit in the room where Kerouac wrote 'The Dharma Bums,'" said Ellie Watts-Russell, the writer who's been living in the house since March. She'd been leading a writing workshop while I was there and called me a few days later. "There’s a picture of Kerouac working on 'The Dharma Bums' in that room where I get to write. I think one of the previous writers in the goodbye book, she felt like Jack had her back when she was working."

Watts-Russell, a Brit who is amazed by the support offered writers in the U.S. with residencies like this one -- twice she marveled at not having to look at a utility bill during her three-month stay -- says there is "a real sense of passing the baton between writers." She meant that the Kerouac House has a tradition of each resident welcoming and encouraging the next, but it applies in a greater sense, too -- they're all passing the baton that launched from Kerouac's typewriter in that back room.

Because the front of the house, above, isn't exactly where Kerouac lived. Where he did is after the jump.

'Gone With the Wind' celebrates 75 years

Frankly, my dear, you may not give a damn, but "Gone With the Wind" is about to experience another milestone: the 75th anniversary of its publication in 1936. 

The novel has inspired sequels, official and otherwise (Alexandra Ripley's "Scarlett" in 1991 and Alice Randall's "The Wind Done Gone" in 2001, among others).

Margaret Mitchell's book and the 1939 movie it inspired have been the focus of reams of academic papers and literary analyses, museum exhibitions (and museums), dress-up parties and enough collectibles to restart the economy. It is estimated that the book has sold between 30 million and 50 million copies.

And now, thanks to a significant anniversary, we're about to hear a lot more about "GWTW."

• Publishers Weekly notes that Scribner is "publishing an $18 commemorative trade paperback edition of 'Wind' featuring the book's original jacket art."

• On May 14, the Atlanta History Center's Margaret Mitchell House will sponsor a day of activities, including tours of the apartment where Mitchell lived as she wrote "GWTW," a lecture on depictions of slavery in the book, living history interpreters and dance clinics.

• Extreme fans of the book, otherwise known as "Windies" have big plans, as outlined in a New York Times article earlier this year. They might be going to the Gone With the Wind Museum in Marietta, Ga., which will host "A Tribute to Margaret Mitchell: The Book That Touched The World," June 10-11

• University of Georgia libraries have scheduled a number of events, including a May 6 kickoff for "In a Weak Moment I Wrote a Book," an exhibit featuring letters Mitchell wrote about "Gone With The Wind." (The university says it "cares for the largest collection of personal papers and memorabilia from Mitchell.")

And that’s just for starters.

Festival of Books: Susan Straight and novelists examine the cultural fallout of 'those who stay and those who leave'

During the panel “The Art of the Novel” on Sunday, novelist Susan Straight said that while writing her new book she learned there were two types of people: those who stay and those who leave.

An informal poll of the audience revealed a large population of people who no longer live near where they were born –- those who leave. (This may be a particularly Californian quality.) In fact, all the novelists on the panel have written about (im)migration in one way or another: Straight’s "Take One Candle Light a Room," Francine Prose’s "My New American Life" and Mona Simpson’s "My Hollywood."

While the books can be described as political, they portray a particular type of domestic politics, the contours of which are often more private and subtle. In their novels, the characters move between cultures, sometimes between the U.S. and other nations (Albania for Prose, the Philippines for Simpson) or within and between particular American cultures (Straight).

Festival of Books: Jonathan Lethem talks about the unknown and his fiction being fact-checked

Kicking off the Festival of Books' banquet of panels at USC's Bing Theater on Sunday, novelist Jonathan Lethem spoke about the occupational hazards that come with melding contemporary cultural references with richly drawn fiction.

In a reply to a question from moderator and L.A. Times staff writer Carolyn Kellogg on the Internet's impact on readers' investigation of his work, Lethem described the curious situation that resulted when the notoriously detailed fact-checkers from the New Yorker magazine called him with a concern about an excerpt from his 2009 novel, "Chronic City."

Referencing made-up band Zeroville (which itself is a reference to Steve Erickson's novel of the same name), the piece referred to the band having never played the iconic New York CIty punk club CBGB.

Citing a Zeroville record review available online, the fact-checker advised Lethem that Zeroville had in fact played CBGB. Of course, the review was written by Lethem and was just as fictional as the band in this case, but the novelist relished the idea of his fictional worlds colliding.

"In this case I don't mind being wrong," Lethem playfully replied to the fact-checker. "In my book they didn't play CBGB, but I know they did, it's OK."

Coming to the Festival of Books: Chris Adrian

When the New Yorker selected its 20 under 40 last year -- a prestigious list of writers to watch -- Chris Adrian was the eldest of the bunch. Not that he's a slacker -- he's a pediatric fellow in hematology/oncology at UC San Francisco and also found time to get a master's of fine arts at the Iowa Writers Workshop. His fourth book, "The Great Night," officially hit shelves Tuesday.

Adrian will be at the Festival of Books on Saturday on the panel "The Experimental Epic" with National Book Award nominee Karen Tei Yamashita and Adam Levin, author of the massive McSweeney's novel "The Instructions." Adrian took time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions by email.

Jacket Copy: Since your new novel "The Great Night" is a retelling of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," you must have read it before. When did you first read the play, and did it hook you right away?

Chris Adrian: Oddly enough I don't actually remember when I first read the play. I think it was probably when I was very young, because when I was little I used to like to be seen reading Shakespeare plays so people would think I was smart, and I have very clear grade-school memories of some of the more gruesome scenes from the tragedies, which were the only parts I really paid any attention to. I think I must have read it, or at least passed my eyes over it, in grade school, but lacking any beheadings or behandings or stab-orgies it probably failed to make much of an impression. I read it again in high school and still thought it was a little boring, then encountered it one more time in college and finally got hooked, though mostly on account of the Pyramus and Thisbe play, which I liked better than anything around it.

JC: Do you know San Francisco's Buena Vista Park well -- and is it a magical place to you?

CA: I used to pass through Buena Vista Park every day on the way back and forth from work, and so got to see it at dawn and dusk, when it it always seems otherworldly, if not magical. Seen from certain angles, bathed in moonlight and surrounded by fog, it's hard not to imagine that something deeply unusual might be going on in there.

JC: As a doctor, how do you ever find time to write?

CA: The people in charge of me have given me a lot of time off over the years, which is part of the advantage of being in training. As I'm getting closer to being all grown up as a physician and having to go find a real job, finding time is getting to be harder, though I still feel like I have it a great deal easier than my friends who are writers who have kids. They all seem able to get more done in 20 minutes than I can in a month.

JC:  Are you looking forward to anything in particular at the Festival of Books this year?

CA: R.L Stine and Patti Smith! Though I kind of wish they were in conversation with each other instead of other people.

JC: What do you hope to see or do in L.A. apart from the Festival of Books?

CA: I have a brand new cousin in L.A. whom I'm hoping to get to meet. And I have this T-shirt that says "What happens in La Brea Tar Pits Stays in La Brea Tar Pits" and I'd feel much better about wearing it if I actually visited them.

Tickets to the L.A. Times Festival of Books panels are available now from Eventbrite.

RELATED:

Coming to the Festival of Books: Peter Bognanni

Coming to the Festival of Books: Tayari Jones

Coming to the Festival of Books: Charles Yu

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Chris Adrian. Credit: Gus Elliott

Harper Lee -- who turns 85 today -- denies cooperating with upcoming book

People are inevitably curious about Harper Lee. The author of the much-loved novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" has kept to herself since the book's publication in 1960, eventually moving back to Alabama, and never publishing another book.

On Tuesday, Penguin announced that it would publish a memoir of lives intertwined with the reclusive writer, "The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee," by Marja Mills, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, written "with direct access to Harper and Alice Lee [her sister] and their friends and family."

On Wednesday, the N.Y. Times reports, Harper Lee issued a statement saying that she had not cooperated with the book. "Contrary to recent news reports, I have not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills. Neither have I authorized such a book. Any claims otherwise are false."

The statement was issued by the law firm Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter -- the "Lee" is Harper's sister Alice -- and signed by Harper Lee.

Mills' literary agent, Miriam Altshuler, told the paper that her client "has the written support of Alice Lee and a lifelong family friend, and prior to Harper Lee's stroke in 2007, she had the verbal support of Harper Lee."

Even if the book does not proceed as originally billed, but curiosity about the woman who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" will remain high. It has been decades since she gave an actual interview -- although she did speak politely (about ducks) to a British reporter who tracked her down in 2010.

As few details of her life are known, one thing is certain: Today, April 28, is Harper Lee's 85th birthday.

RELATED:

Harper Lee to receive National Medal of the Arts

Reclusive Harper Lee speaks to British reporter - about ducks

Kerry Madden tracks Harper Lee

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Harper Lee at a 2007 ceremony in Alabama. Credit: Associated Press Photos

2011 Hugo Award nominees announced

Nominations for 2011 Hugo Awards, which are among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing, were announced at a conference held during Easter weekend. Finalists will be announced at a ceremony in August.

More than 1,000 nominating ballots were counted, for finalists in diverse categories that include  novella, short form editor, fan writer and related work (which includes the fantastic title, "Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It," edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea). Members of Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, will vote on the winners.

2011 Hugo Award finalists in the major category of novel are Connie Willis' "Blackout/All Clear," Lois McMaster Bujold's "Cryoburn," Ian McDonald's "The Dervish House," Mira Grant's "Feed" and N.K. Jemisin's "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms." Films that were honored with dramatic presentation, long form nominations are "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1," "How to Train your Dragon," "Inception," "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and "Toy Story 3."

 The complete list of finalists is after the jump.

The expurgated 'Huckleberry Finn'

Here we go again: This week, NewSouth Books, a publisher based in Montgomery, Ala., announced plans to release an omnibus edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" with a couple of offensive words removed. Most prominent, of course, is "nigger," which appears 219 times in "Huckleberry Finn" and has been the source of repeated efforts to ban or restrict the novel since it was published 125 years ago. In this new edition, the word in question has been replaced by "slave."

To give their project credibility, NewSouth teamed with Alan Gribben, chair of the English department at Alabama's Auburn University, to do the clean-up job. According to Publishers Weekly, Gribben was motivated by his own deep discomfort over the novel's language and by the reactions of younger readers. "After a number of talks," he told PW, "I was sought out by local teachers, and to a person, they said we would love to teach ... 'Huckleberry Finn,' but we feel we can't do it anymore. In the new classroom, it's really not acceptable."

I agree: The N-word is not acceptable -- although I'm not sure "slave" is much of an improvement, with its unthinking conflation of servitude and race. Like professor Gribben, I've discussed "Huckleberry Finn" in the classroom, and it is always difficult and awkward to work around that word. This, however, is precisely why it needs to remain part of our experience of "Huckleberry Finn."

Literature, after all, is not there to reassure us; it's supposed to reveal us, in all our contradictory complexity. The fact that it makes us uncomfortable is part of the point -- like all great art, it demands that we confront our half-truths and self-deceptions, the justifications and evasions by which we measure out our daily lives.

Huck is a perfect case in point, a rebel who can't reconcile his love for the escaped slave Jim with his cultural indoctrination, who goes back and forth about whether his companion is fully a human being.

“All right, then, I’ll go to hell,” he announces when he finally decides the matter. The choice of words is telling, since in choosing not to return Jim to slavery, Huck articulates the central moral argument of the book. This is the point Twain is making, that there is a difference between custom and conscience, between social convention and the ethics of the individual. At the heart of this is the issue of language, the words we use and how we use them, and what they tell us about the reality we construct.

On its website, NewSouth notes that this new edition of "Huckleberry Finn" will not supersede previous editions of the novel: "If the publication sparks good debate about how language impacts learning or about the nature of censorship or the way in which racial slurs exercise their baneful influence, then our mission in publishing this new edition of Twain’s works will be more emphatically fulfilled," the publisher declares.

I don't know how that happens, how debate is stirred by sweeping that which disturbs us under the rug. Professor Gribben ought to understand this; it's supposed to be in the nature of his academic work. As for NewSouth, with its politically correct agenda, it might be useful to go back to Twain.

In 1885, the same year  "Huckleberry Finn" was published, Twain wrote an essay called "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" that seems to speak directly to the current contretemps. "The highest perfection of politeness," he suggests there, "is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of graceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying."

-- David L. Ulin

Photo: Mark Twain, in an undated photo. Credit: The Mark Twain House & Museum / Associated Press