Free Republic

Harper Lee, the aging author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has reached a settlement in principle on a lawsuit alleging she was scammed into signing over the copyright to her classic novel by an unscrupulous literary agent who took advantage of her failing hearing and eyesight, a lawyer in the case says. Lee had filed suit in May against Samuel Pinkus and others — including disgraced journalist Gerald Posner — to reclaim the copyright. However, dismissal papers were filed in Manhattan federal court today by Lee’s lawyer removing both Posner and Lee Ann Winick, Pinkus’ wife and another defendant, of...

I don’t believe you; You had the whole damned thing all wrong. He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays. — Jethro Tull Sometimess you just have to laugh at the absurdity. I’d mentioned in a recent column a Squawker’s “prayer” that Ariel Castro (who kidnapped and held three Ohio women captive for more than a decade) would be stabbed in prison. I wondered, in print, what kind of person would seek divine intervention to carry out a revenge fantasy on his behalf. And that was that. Until this arrived: “Who the (expletive deleted) do you think...

Waiting to Exhale author Terry McMillan alternately uses Twitter to bash the GOP and share warm and fuzzy life tips with her followers. Today's social media message falls squarely in the former camp. McMillan, an Obama apologist of the highest order, lashed out at former Gov. Sarah Palin, promising violence should the two women ever end up in the same place at the same time. (TWEET-AT-LINK)

It's been called a "cure for rejection-letter fatigue." Amazon on Thursday released new details about the success of its program for authors who want to self-publish on its Kindle e-reader devices. The company, which unveiled a suite of new e-readers and tablets at a press conference in Southern California on Thursday, says 27 of the top 100 Kindle books were created using a system called Kindle Direct Publishing. That system allows authors to bypass traditional publishers and instead deal directly with Amazon, which claims to be able to publish their books digitally "in hours." The authors receive 70% of the...

Rejection -- even repeated rejection -- doesn't have to mean defeat. That, it turns out, is the lasting lesson of the Chuck Ross story. You may recognize the name; two Sundays ago, I wrote about J.K. Rowling, the spectacularly successful author of the Harry Potter books, and about how she has published a detective novel under the name Robert Galbraith. In the column, I recalled what a young and frustrated writer -- Chuck Ross -- did in the 1970s. To briefly recap: Ross had written a mystery novel that had been turned down everywhere he sent it. So, as an...

Earlier today, IAC/InterActive reached a deal to sell Newsweek, which has been publishing since January as a digital-only version of the old magazine, to the owners of the International Business Times. The announcement ends weeks of speculation about who might purchase what remains of the 80-year-old journalism brand, which was on the block for the second time in just three years. Newsweek, the once-venerated weekly newsmagazine that at its height in the early '90s rivaled Time for readers and exercised tremendous influence on Washington politics, fell on hard times under the ownership of The Washington Post Company, and was sold...

But wasn’t George Zimmerman a “white Hispanic?” Author Terry McMillan says white men shoot black boys “to show who has the power.” Via Twitchy: Terry McMillan ✔ @MsTerryMcMillan I think a lot of white men are afraid of and intimidated by black boys and black men. Shooting them is one way to show who has the power. 11:27 PM - 26 Jul 2013 103 Retweets 48 favorites It would be nice if at least one of these race hustlers would have their facts straight. Heather MacDonald reported: If a black parent wants to radically reduce his son’s chance of getting...

Juror B37 in the George Zimmerman trial has signed (along with her attorney husband) with literary agent and Martin Literary Management president Sharlene Martin. Along with the other jurors, Juror B37 found Zimmerman not guilty in the controversial trial. Literary agent Martin had this statement: My hope is that people will read Juror B37’s book, written with her attorney husband, and understand the commitment it takes to serve and be sequestered on a jury in a highly publicized murder trial and how important, despite one’s personal viewpoints, it is to follow the letter of the law. It could open a...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The fate of Paula Deen's magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen, is still up in the air after a controversy over the Food Network host's use of racial epithets led to the end of her television contract. "We are not in a position to discuss her magazine and contract right now," said Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, the president of Birmingham-based Hoffman Media, which produces the magazine. "A statement will be forthcoming later." "We at Hoffman Media do not condone discrimination of any kind," DePiano said.

Washington D.C., May 7, 2013 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- An Illinois-based Bible publisher has secured temporary relief from the federal contraception mandate after the Obama administration asked an appellate court to dismiss its challenge to a preliminary injunction. Matthew Bowman, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending the publisher, told CNA that the move indicates “that the government knows it is taking an extremist view against religious freedom, and it is afraid to defend that in court.” As a result of the court order, the Bible publisher will remain protected by a temporary injunction, and will therefore...

PORTLAND, Maine — Stephen King and his wife have made a donation to a Maine group advocating for stricter gun control laws. King says the gift was "five figures" but doesn't want to say more about it because "charity's supposed to be a private thing." The Coalition for a Safer Maine says King is a gun owner and a defender of the Second Amendment who supports expanded background checks on gun sales and a ban on the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines.....

NEW YORK — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a new book coming, this time about Christmas. The former Republican vice presidential candidate has a deal with HarperCollins for "A Happy Holiday IS a Merry Christmas," scheduled for November. HarperCollins announced Monday the book will criticize the "over-commercialism" and "homogenization" of Christmas and call for a renewed emphasis on the religious importance....

<p>In a bid to slash $465 million of debt, Reader’s Digest parent RDA Holding Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the weekend for the second time in less than four years.</p> <p>The media company said it has reached a deal with its largest creditor, Wells Fargo (WFC), and more than 70% of its secured noteholders on a financial restructuring plan that includes the Chapter 11 filing.</p>

Searching Google Books for Poor Richard's has become somewhat of an exercise in frustration for me. Typically, what you will find are compilations. Authors who have looked at Franklins' works and decided what should be considered "greatest hits" quotations. Consider me uninterested. So I finally got my hands on a copy from the library which contained the original constructs of Poor Richards' as Franklin wrote them, that way I would know what to search for. Below, you will see where to find all of them online, in their original context. 1733, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1737 ,1738, 17391740 ,1741, 1742, 1743,...

LEWISTON, Maine — Geiger Brothers, the producer of the Farmers’ Almanac as well as pocket diaries and calendars, is divesting itself of its printing and manufacturing business after 135 years. The company’s decision, one influenced by changes in peoples’ behavior wrought by technology, will lead to 75 people losing their jobs, Peter Geiger, the company’s executive vice president and editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday evening. Geiger said the company, which was founded in 1878 and moved to Lewiston in 1955, told its employees of the decision on Tuesday. The company, which is also...

McGraw-Hill Education announced today it will layoff 63 employees from its Polaris offices as part of a move to reorganize and upgrade the digital quality of the kindergarten to high school products it offers. The Polaris offices are the headquarters of McGraw-Hill’s School Education division, which is part of the larger education operations. The cutbacks will reduce the number of employees at Polaris to about 510. Nationally, there will be 138 layoffs in the school education division...

Jerry Finkelstein, who made a fortune in business, real estate and newspapers, including The New York Law Journal and The Hill, and for many years was a self-styled Democratic power broker in New York City, died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 96.

At Writer’s Bloc, I often talk about the marketing of books, because it seems so many authors still don’t understand the importance of it. That’s why, this week, I am going to touch on a couple points made by Michael Hyatt in his new book, “Platform.” To be fair, I’ve also reviewed it, but in this space, its contents are relevant. I wouldn’t agree with Hyatt about everything, of course, but frankly, his publishing knowledge is a resource that writers should use until there’s nothing left to wring-out. “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World,” is a true insider’s account...

Campus bookstores hate the idea, and even some college students are skeptical of the new effort by a former California lawmaker to help them save money on textbooks for hundreds of classes on nearly every campus from Alabama to the Yukon Territory. It's a free price-check that lets students compare textbook prices and rentals, and buy from the source they like best. The new online tool comes from former state Sen. Dean Florez, president of the 20 Million Minds Foundation in Sacramento, which lobbies for low-cost textbooks and is behind legislation, SB1052, to create a low-cost digital textbook library in...

In June, 1776, with Richard Henry Lee’s proposal for independence from Great Britain awaiting a vote in the Continental Congress, a committee of five – Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and Thomas Jefferson – selected one from among their number to be the key author of a formal Declaration of Independence. While the entire Continental Congress contributed to it, through their helpful editing, the principal author has long been known to be Thomas Jefferson, and he was rightly so proud of it that he wanted his authorship of this document to be on his tombstone rather...