Sherry Chandler

[Update 2: Lance Mannion on Jimmy Carter at Annapolis in the week after GWB gave a speech there.]

[Update: Apparently the buying public differs considerably from the critics. The Kentucky Literary Newsletter provides some quotes dismissive of Jimmy Carter's book from such notable sources as Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, and the Wall Street Journal. Scroll down.]

Oh yes, and cookbooks. But Charlie Hughes probably isn’t surprised by that.

The public has spoken (or so says the NYTimes) — no more Martha Stewart, no more Michael Moore.

“If there’s any theme to the year,” said David Rosenthal, the publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint, “it’s that people only want to read the truth.” So while nonfiction sales are generally good, he said, fiction sales are best defined, in Mr. Rosenthal’s usual plain-spoken manner, by an expletive.

This continues a trend that began at least four years ago, when, after 9/11, a large segment of readers seemed to give up on fiction, flocking instead to nonfiction works, first about 9/11 itself, then about Islam, the Middle East, Iraq and United States politics.

Two books that are selling well ahead of expectations this fall fit that mold: “Our Endangered Values,” by Jimmy Carter, an assessment of the country’s current political and religious debates, published by Simon & Schuster; and “A Man Without a Country,” by Kurt Vonnegut, a series of essays leavened with the author’s trademark humanist view, published by Seven Stories Press.

“Both of these men have a moral profile” that is helping their books, said Jim Harris, an owner of Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. He added that the authors’ “authoritative voices” have attracted buyers who do not place themselves at one political extreme or the other.

…

Another big surprise is a Civil War saga that weaves intimate portraits of historical figures with real-life events. It is not, however, E. L. Doctorow’s much-anticipated novel, “The March,” published by Random House. It is “The Widow of the South,” the first novel by Robert Hicks, published by Warner Books. According to BookScan, each book has sold just over 100,000 copies.

The NYTimes article was written by Edward Wyatt.

James Wolcott also had some pithy things to say about President Carter’s perserverance and idealism in the face of scathing criticism and ridicule.

James Burgett writes to tell me that three of his pinhole photographs, including the one at left, have been published in Pinhole Journal And I’m really glad to hear it, if only because the news gives me a chance to do something I’ve wanted to do for a while now: draw your attention to James Burgett.

A pinhole camera doesn’t have a lens. A very small “pinhole” admits the light that forms the image. For those of you who are as ignorant of all this as I am, I think the process is similar to using a pinhole to project a solar eclipse onto a piece of paper. Wikipedia has a description of the process and instructions for making a camera. You can cross check that and see some neat photographs at Pinhole Resource.

I’m pretty sure Alan MacKellar told me that one advantage of the pinhole is that, without a lens, all parts of the photograph are in focus, so you get a more three-dimensional feel. However, the long exposure time can introduce movement artifacts, blurring. Pinhole Resource uses the term “mystery.”

James Burgett is one of Central Kentucky’s best and most neglected black-and-white photographers. He is known to hang out at Loudoun House, where he has studio space. If you’d like to see more of his work, he keeps an open studio during Lexington Art League’s Fourth Friday events.

Pinhole Journal is the only print outlet for pinhole photography. This photograph, reproduced by permission of the artist, is called “Useful Despair.”