An introduction to The Book Lover's Almanac
Tales of duelling novelists, manuscripts going up in flames, and Sylvia Plath’s culinary delights on Boxing Day.
It’s nearly that time again. My new book, The Book Lover’s Almanac, is out on October 5, and I’ll be exclusively previewing bits of it for you lucky people in these newsletters over the next couple of weeks. First out of the traps is what I like to call the ‘Introduction’ (then I’ll look at its design and illustrations, and finally I’ll get round to the actual words inside it):
Almanacs have been bestsellers for thousands of years, rivalling even sales of the Bible at their height, and they are still incredibly popular today. For farmers, nature enthusisasts and astrologers, they provide affordable calendars of the past and predictors of the future. Essential and affordable guides, their contents often also include poetry and proverbs.
The almanac you have in your hands is less agricultural, but what it lacks in phases of the moon and tide times, it makes up for in ‘On This Day’ tales of duelling novelists, manuscripts going up in flames, and Sylvia Plath’s culinary delights on Boxing Day.
Of course it includes important births, deaths and first editions/performances across each month. There are also key milestones, such as the first recorded female printer and the birth of the Kindle. And at the heart of the book are the moments that offer a daily glimpse behind the literary curtain. Here is James Joyce on a sightseeing bus tour of the Waterloo battlefield, Thomas Mann on a trip to Venice, E. M. Forster looking around caves in India.
Naturally there’s literary snark, too. Charlotte Brontë comments on Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad judges Herman Melville, and Samuel Pepys has a rotten time at A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And while it is the best of times for Sylvia Townsend Warner when she checks out her bank balance while doing some housework, it’s certainly the worst of times for the 13th century Icelandic writer and statesman Snorri Sturluson who just checks out.
For each of the 366 days of the year (actually, there are 367 here …), there’s an item of interest, from George Eliot’s to do list on January 1 to Louisa M. Alcott’s advice on Christmas Day for a budding writer. Lee Child has a life-changing moment on September 1, Franz Kafka has a fruitless one on June 7, and John Masefield finishes writing The Box of Delights on March 23, 1935, at 5.36 p.m. precisely.
On the small screen Joey and Rachel swap their favourite novels, while Frasier dresses up as Geoffrey Chaucer. On the big one, Robbie gives Baby the literary key to his philosophy of life (“Make sure you return it, I have notes in the margin”).
The beauty of this almanac is that you have no idea what you’re going to come across next: George Orwell breaking his spade handle while gardening, Queen Victoria very nearly discovering The Mystery of Edwin Drood, or Dylan Thomas’s decidedly mixed success as a best man.
There are many ways to read it – using family birthdays, systematically from January 1 to December 32, haphazardly as it falls open – but I hope that whichever you choose, you find plenty to enjoy, and maybe something to lead you down more rabbit holes (see July 4).
Come on, who wouldn’t want to own/gift something like this to a loved one or family member?