Daunting prose 0 ▲ Making Book 2 hours ago · Writing · hide The New Yorker‘s 26 October issue carries a large profile/interview with James Daunt, head of Barnes & Noble, head of Waterstones, thus Foyles, Blackwells, Heffers etc., etc. and the biggest name in bookselling in the world. The piece is surprisingly badly written. Within the first three columns I was stopped by “Though less well-known than many authors . . .”; “the leafy parts of London” as location of his first store, Daunt Books; and “Outwardly, Daunt carries faint traces of the social caste that the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold facetiously dubbed ‘the Barbarians'”. In each of these instances we look in vain for the famous editorial blue pencil of The New Yorker. “Though less well known than many authors, Daunt leads an empire of unprecedented scale.” Who is not less-well known than many authors? Gey few. Can you name a single bookseller other than James Daunt? Probably not, but I suspect you can, off the cuff, name half a dozen empires of “precedented scale”, both commercial… Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town
