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1987 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1987. Events *January 2 – Golliwogs in Enid Blyton children's books are replaced by the British publisher with gnomes after complaints of a racial offence implication. *April – K. W. Jeter coins the term "Steampunk" in a letter published in '' Locus: the magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field''. *June – Virago Press of London publishes ''Down the Road, Worlds Away'', a collection of short stories ostensibly by Rahila Khan, a young Muslim woman living in England. Three weeks later, Toby Forward, an Anglican clergyman, admits to writing them and the publisher withdraws the book. "He, unlike the editors at Virago, had grown up in precisely the kind of area and social conditions that the book described.... Although the book never claimed to be other than a work of fiction, the publishers destroyed the stock still in the warehouse and recalled all unsold copies from the bookshops, thus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knots And Crosses
''Knots and Crosses'' (also written ''Knots & Crosses'') is a 1987 crime novel by Ian Rankin. It is the first of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was written while Rankin was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh. In the introduction to this novel, Rankin states that Rebus lives directly opposite the window in Marchmont from which he himself looked out while writing the book. Plot 1985. Edinburgh has been shocked by the abduction and subsequent strangling of two young girls. Journalist Jim Stevens runs his own investigation, and has uncovered Michael Rebus's drug dealing. He suspects that his brother John, a Lothian and Borders Police officer, knows or even supports his brother's illegal activities. John Rebus is meanwhile assigned to the investigative team. The investigation remains without success, and eventually two more girls disappear. Throughout the case, John is haunted by his past in the SAS. Then his former wife is attacked and his daughter abd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Trilogy
''The New York Trilogy'' is a series of novels by American writer Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as ''City of Glass'' (1985), ''Ghosts'' (1986) and ''The Locked Room'' (1986), it has since been collected into a single volume. The Trilogy is a postmodern interpretation of detective and mystery fiction, exploring various philosophical themes. Plot ''City of Glass'' The first story, ''City of Glass'', features an author of detective fiction who becomes a private investigator and descends into madness as he becomes embroiled in the investigation of a case. It explores layers of identity and reality, from Paul Auster the writer of the novel to the unnamed "author" who reports the events as reality, to "Paul Auster the writer", a character in the story, to "Paul Auster the detective", who may or may not exist in the novel, to Peter Stillman the younger, to Peter Stillman the elder and, finally, to Daniel Quinn, the protagonist. ''City of Glass'' has an inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), '' The Book of Illusions'' (2002), '' The Brooklyn Follies'' (2005), '' Invisible'' (2009), '' Sunset Park'' (2010), '' Winter Journal'' (2012), and '' 4 3 2 1'' (2017). His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. Early life Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey,Freeman, John"At home with Siri and Paul", '' The Jerusalem Post'', April 3, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008. "Like so many people in New York, both of them are spiritual refugees of a sort. Auster hails from Newark, New Jersey, and Hustvedt from Minnesota, where she was raised the daughter of a professor, among a clan of very tall siblings." son of Samuel Auster, a landlord who owned buildings with his brothers in Jersey City, and Queenie, née Bogat. His m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilles Archambault
Gilles Archambault (born September 19, 1933 in Montreal, Quebec) is a francophone novelist from Quebec, Canada. He studied at the Université de Montréal in 1957, and then worked at Radio-Canada, while working as a journalist. From 1988 to 1997, he broadcast a column on the "CBF Bonjour" program. His work appeared in ''La Presse'', ''Le Devoir'', ''L'Actualité'', and ''Le Livre d'ici''. He won the Prix Athanase-David in 1981 for his body of work, and a Governor General's Award in 1987 for ''L'obsédante obèse et autres aggressions'', a collection of short prose pieces. He has also written extensively about jazz. His papers are held at the Library of Canada. Novels and Short Story Collections *''Une suprême discrétion'' (1963) *''La vie à trois'' (1965) *''Le tendre matin'' (1969) *''Parlons de moi'' (1970) *''La fleur aux dents'' (1971) *''Enfances lointaines'' (1972), stories *''La fuite immobile'' (1974) *''Les Pins parasols'' (1976) *''Stupeurs et autres écrits'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Einstein's Monsters
''Einstein's Monsters'' (1987) is a collection of short stories by British writer Martin Amis. Each of the five stories deals with the subject of nuclear weapons. Contents ''Einstein's Monsters'' consists of five thematically-linked short stories prefaced by a long introductory essay titled "Thinkability". (Amis includes another essay on nuclear weapons in his collection '' Visiting Mrs. Nabokov'', "Nuclear City: The Megadeath Intellectuals". It was written during the publication year of ''Einstein's Monsters'' and covers similar ground: "When nuclear weapons become real to you, when they stop buzzing around your ears and actually move into your head, hardly an hour passes without some throb or flash, some heavy pulse of imagined supercatastrophe.") The five stories are: * "Bujak and the Strong Force, or God's Dice" * "Insight at Flame Lake" * "The Time Disease" * "The Little Puppy That Could" * "The Immortals" Two of these stories, "Bujak" and "The Little Puppy", were later p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Amis
Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ''Experience'' and was twice listed for the Booker Prize (shortlisted in 1991 for '' Time's Arrow'' and longlisted in 2003 for '' Yellow Dog''). Amis was a professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing from 2007 until 2011. In 2008, ''The Times'' named him one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Amis's work centres on the excesses of late capitalist Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirised through grotesque caricature. He was portrayed by some literary critics as a master of what ''The New York Times'' called "the new unpleasantness.”Stout, Mira"Martin Amis: Down London's mean streets", ''The New York Times'', 4 February 1990. He was i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic". The book was followed by a sequel, '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul''. The recurring major characters are the eponymous Dirk Gently, his secretary Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Adams began work on another novel, '' The Salmon of Doubt'', with the intention of publishing it as the third book in the series, but died before completing it. A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of six episodes was broadcast from October 2007. A second series based on the sequel was broadcast from October 2008. A 2010 television adaptation for BBC Four borrowed some of the characters and some minor plot elements of the novel to create a new story, and a 2016 television adaptation for BBC America served as a continuation of the books. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' evolved into a "trilogy" of six (or five, according to the author) books which sold more than 15 million copies in his life. It was made into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame. Adams wrote ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1987) and '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988), and co-wrote '' The Meaning of Liff'' (1983), '' The Deeper Meaning of Liff'' (1990) and '' Last Chance to See'' (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series ''Doctor Who'', including the unaired serial '' Shada'', co-wrote '' City of Death'' (1979), and served as script editor for its 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William Blake, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot, Charlie Chaplin and Sir Thomas More, he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards. He is noted for the volume of work he has produced, the range of styles therein, his skill at assuming different voices, and the depth of his research. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Early life and education Ackroyd was born in London and raised on a council estate in East Acton, in what he has described as a "strict" Roman Catholic household by his mother and grandmother, after his father disappeared from the family home. He first knew that he was gay when he was seven. He was educated at St Benedict' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthills Of The Savannah
''Anthills of the Savannah'' is a 1987 novel by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. It was his fifth novel, first published in the United Kingdom 21 years after Achebe's previous one ('' A Man of the People'' in 1966), and was credited with having "revived his reputation in Britain". A finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize for Fiction, ''Anthills of the Savannah'' has been described as the "most important novel to come out of Africa in the 980s. Critics praised the novel upon its release. Plot The plot centres around the political intrigue, in an imaginary West African country of Kangan, where a Sandhurst-trained officer, identified only as Sam and known as "His Excellency",, has taken power following a military coup. Achebe describes the political situation through the experiences of three friends: Chris Oriko, the government's Commissioner for Information; Beatrice Okoh, an official in the Ministry of Finance, and, girlfriend of Chris; and Ikem Osodi, a newspaper editor critical of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958) occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with ''Things Fall Apart'', his '' No Longer at Ease'' (1960) and '' Arrow of God'' (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include '' A Man of the People'' (1966) and '' Anthills of the Savannah'' (1987). Achebe is often referred to as the "father of modern African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization. Born in Ogidi, Colonial Nigeria, Achebe's childhood was influenced by both Igbo traditional culture and colonial Christianity. He excelled in school and attended what is now the University of Ibadan, where he became fiercely critical of how Western literature depicted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
