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By: Carey Weeks

Red River Pulpwood Queens

November Newsletter

The Shrevepor t area chapter o f the larges t "mee t ing and discuss ing" book c lub in the wor ld

Bram Stoker was born in Dublin,

Ireland, November 1847. Bram was

a sickly child and not expected to

survive, spending his first eight years

of life in bed. Although the cause of 

his disease remained unknown he

made a total recovery and entered

Trinity College, Dublin, at age 16where he developed into a star

athlete. He decided to become a

drama critic, and a November 1871

review by him was published in the

Dublin Mail for whom he wrote,

unpaid, for five years. It was at this

time that he read Joseph Sheridan Le

Fanu's vampire story, Carmilla, that

was to pique his interest in the sub-

 ject. After writing a review of Henry

Irving in Hamlet in 1876, he met the

great actor for whom he began to

work part time. In 1878 Stoker

married Florence Anne Lemon

Balcombe, who had recently turneddown a proposal from Oscar Wilde, at

St. Anne's Church, Dublin. Shortly

thereafter he accepted an offer to

become Irving's manager at the

Lyceum Theatre and moved to Lon-

don with his wife. During the next 27

years, until Irving's death, Stoker

became the actor's friend and

confidant and faithfully made all the

arrangements for him and his

company. Around 1890 Stoker

began work on an untitled vampire

novel that eventually became

known as The Un-Dead. It was just

before publication, May 26, 1897

that the title became Dracula. On

Oct 13, 1905 Henry Irving died.Stoker, arriving two minutes after

his death, closed the actors eyes for

the last time. Stoker himself 

suffered a stroke, and his health

and finances went downhill.

 Although Dracula sold, it was not

successful enough to reverse his

fortunes. He also published

Personal Reminiscences of Henry

Irving (1906) and his last novel, The

Lair of the White Worm (1911).

Bram Stoker died in near poverty at

his home in London, April 20, 1912.

He was not to know of the great

success his Dracula wouldenjoy. The cause of death stated on

his death certificate was

"exhaustion." The body was

cremated! Stoker's Dracula's Guest

was published posthumously as a

short story in 1914. It consisted of 

material omitted because of length

by the publisher from the original

manuscript of Dracula.

Bram Stoker and Loving Dracula: Book Selection -

Karen Essex’s Dracula In Love 

November 18, 2010

November Magazines Showcase Southern Authors

Two of the South’s best

magazines are delighting

readers with articles about

some of our favorite

authors. Southern Living

has an eight page spread

about Fannie Flagg and

her hometown of 

Birmingham, Alabama.

The Southern Journal

column at the end of the

issue is written by Pulitzer

Prize winning Rick

Bragg.

The November issue of 

Texas Highways, I am

happy to announce, show-

cases our own Queen 

Kathy Patrick and her

fabulous shop Beauty and

the Book.

Upcoming Events:

• Nov. 20, 2010 — Holiday Open House,

Beauty and the Book 

9am-5pm., Jefferson,

TX. Goodies, hot

cider, and door prizes.

• Dec. 5, 2010 — 

6:30pm Pulpwood

Queens Christmas

Party, Austin Street

Bistro, Jefferson, TX.

Tickets $30. Special

guest Susan Gregg

Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy 

Queen)

•  Jan. 13-16, 2010 — 

Girlfriend Weekend

Author Extravaganza.

Program in December

Newsletter.

 December Book

Selection

“I feel myself 

quite wild

with

excitement. I 

suppose one

ought to pity

anything so

hunted as the

Count. That is

 just it. This

thing is not

human, noteven a beast.” 

- (from Mina

Harker’s

 Diary, Bram

Stoker’s

 Dracula)

The Imperfectioinists

 By: Tom Rachman 

 Both Southern Living and

Texas Highways are on

newsstands now! 

www.balletmet.org

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Movie Adaptation Titanic actor Leonardo

DiCaprio will be playing areal-life 19th Century serialkiller in the film adaptationof Erik Larson’s novel Devil in the White City .  T]hefilm follows both theplanning and execution of the mass murders, whichtake place during the city’smost profound momenton the world’s stage. In thefilm, DiCaprio plays themurder-minded H.H.Holmes, a cavalier charlatan

 who takes advantage of somewhere between 27 and200 people, mostly singleyoung women, to develop alucrative personal cadaver-disposal system. (GalleyCat) 

 Joyce Does It Again! Artspace in downtownShreveport will soon beshowcasing the art andcreation of MOONBOTStudios’ short film The Fantastic Flying Books of  Morris Lessmore . Creator William Joyce has called thispiece a love letter to books.

Scholars Attack Jane Austin Jane Austen, one of the greatest novelists

in English literature, had her work heavily altered by a male editor to sort out themess of her original manuscripts,according to an expert. Professor KathrynSutherland studied 1,100 original hand- written pages of Austen's unpublished writings and concluded that her effortshad been polished up to correct her badgrammar and spelling.

"It's widely assumed that Austen was aperfect stylist -- her brother Henry famously said in 1818 that 'everything came finished from her pen' and

commentators continue to share this view today," the Oxford University academicsaid.

"But in reading the manuscripts, it quickly 

becomes clear that this delicate precision

is missing.

"Austen's unpublished manuscriptsunpick her reputation for perfection in various ways: we see blots, crossings out,messiness -- we see creation as it happens,and in Austen's case, we discover apowerful counter-grammatical way of  writing. She broke most of the rules for writing good English."

"In particular, the high degree of 

polished punctuation and epigrammatic

style we see in 'Emma' and 'Persuasion'

is simply not there," Sutherland said

after studying the originals.

"This suggests somebody else was

heavily involved in the editing process

between manuscript and printed book .

"Letters between Austen's publisher

 John Murray II and his talent scout and

editor William Gifford, acknowledging 

the untidiness of Austen's style and how 

Gifford will correct it, seem to identify 

Gifford as the culprit."

Murray was Austen's publisher for the

last two years of her career, overseeing 

"Emma", the second edition of 

"Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion".

"'Sense and Sensibility', 'Pride and

Prejudice' and the first edition of 

'Mansfield Park' were not published by 

Murray and have previously been seen

by some critics as examples of poor

printing," Sutherland said.

"In fact, the style in these novels is muchcloser to Austen's manuscripthand." (article from Yahoo! News)

Mark Twain —Nov. 30, 1835

(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;

 Adventures of Tom Sawyer)

 Albert Camus —Nov. 7, 1913

(The Stranger; The Plague)

Margaret Mitchell —Nov. 8, 1900

(Gone with the Wind) 

Bram Stoker —Nov. 8, 1847

(Dracula; The Lady of the White

Shroud) 

Robert Louis Stevenson —Nov.

13, 1850 (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll

and Mr. Hyde) 

C. S. Lewis —Nov. 29, 1898

(The Screwtape Letters; The

Chronicles of Narnia)

Book News

November Literary Birthdays

PAGE 2 RED RIVER PULPWOOD QUEENS NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER BY: CAREY WEEKS

 Jane Austen 

Scarlett O’Hardy’s Gone with

the Wind Museum in Jefferson,

Texas has the largest private

collection of Gone with the Wind

memorabilia.

The first ever Film Festival to be held Sunday asthe Grand Finale of our 11th AnniversaryGirlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza! Yes,add to your calendar our 50th Anniversary

tribute to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird'!

Features: Author Kerry Madden of Up Close:Harper Lee; Author and Independent Film andTelevision Writer/Producer, Mary Murphy of 

Scout, Atticus, and Boo. Films include: Hey Boo;On Mockingbird ; and the iconic film To Kill A

 Mockingbird . Tickets $25