F. Scott Fitzgerald's Worry List; 'Wolf Hall' Sequel Coming in May

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Worry List; 'Wolf Hall' Sequel Coming in May

Today in publishing and literature: Horsemanship -- not bugs -- was a top worry for The Great Gatsby author, the 'Poe Toaster' once again failed to show up ln Baltimore last night, and Salman Rushdie's panel at the Jaipur literary festival in India has been cancelled following "intense pressure" for him to withdraw.

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For the third year in a row, the black-coated Poe Toaster failed to deposit three roses and a half-full bottle of cognac at Edgar Allen Poe's grave in Baltimore the night before his birthday. The other weirdos who hang out in the Westminster Burial Ground every year on January 18 seem to have given up hope that he'll ever reappear. "It's over," Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, informed the AP. "It will probably hit me later, but I'm too tired now to feel anything else." He was also probably cold, because he was hanging around a graveyard in Baltimore, at night, in January. [AP]

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Organizers at the Jaipur literary festival in India have cancelled a Friday panel discussion that was supposed to feature Salman Rushdie. The decision comes a week after the Muslim cleric Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani protested Rushdie's trip, saying that the presence of the Satanic Verses author would add "salt to the injuries of the country's Muslims." When the comments were made last week, the festival insisted Rushdie's event would not be impacted, but organizers now say there's been "intense pressure" on them to cancel the event, and that Indian officials have already said they won't be able to provide Rushdie with an adequate security detail. [The Guardian]

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The U.S. release date for Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel's sequel to her Man Booker Prize-winning 2009 novel Wolf Hall, has been bumped up to May 22 from the fall. The move was designed to make sure the U.K. and U.S. editions are released on the same day, which means you'll have to go on Wikipedia to brush up on the reign of Henry VIII three months earlier than anticipated. [The Millions]

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F. Scott Fitzgerald concluded a letter he wrote in 1933 to his 11-year-old daughter Scottie with a list of the things she should and should not be worried about. We've pulled out a few of the more sensible and curious items, in the hope you'll stop (or start) worrying about them immediately. 

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Worry about

  • Courage

  • Efficiency

  • Horsemanship (!!!)

Do not worry about

  • The past

  • The future

  • Mosquitoes

  • Insects in general

  • Anybody getting ahead of you

  • Failure unless it is through your own fault

Had the letter been written five years later, we assume 'Your contract at MGM' would have been included in some capacity. [Lists of Note]