Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Hoaxes and Secrets

- As GalleyCat and Bibliothecary noted on Monday (scroll down a bit), there's another good literary hoax out there: the biographer of poet Sir John Betjeman was so taken by a "love letter" ostensibly written by the poet that he included it in his book ... and then the Times book editor realized that the first letters of each paragraph in the letter spell out "AN Wilson is a sh*t" (Ed has the letter in full with the initial letters bolded). Who's the culprit? Possibilities include a rival biographer. The book is about to be reprinted with the letter excised - will the 13,000 copies containing the hoax experience a momentary pang of collectability?

- Also, as followup to "What is Project X?", GalleyCat has some new speculation on the contents of William Morrow's September 12 secret release: Borders "chatter" has the book being shelved in British history, which is leading some toward the possibility of a Princess Diana-related title. But the embargo seems for the moment to be holding fairly well. As I've said, I think this will be incredibly anti-climatic for me since there's a minimal chance that I will care in the least about this book once I know what it is. But the guessing game is amusing nonetheless.