With sequels to everything from Noddy, Winnie the Pooh, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and now a planned series of new Isaac Asimov novel’s it’s become the thankless task of a bunch of authors to keep the dead alive. A difficult job as Paul Bignell and Andrew Johnson argue in a recent article for The Independent,  as “These writers are expected not only to get into the mind of the original author, but also, in the same stroke, to take the story on in their own voice. If they fail, they risk invoking the wrath not only of their publishers and the literary estates that have bequeathed them their fictional worlds – and which expect a decent financial return – but also the legions of fans of the originals.” Mickey Zucker Reichert will have to tread carefully as he revives sci-fi giant Isaac Asimov’s beloved Dr Susan Clark, the “robopsychologist” heroine of I, Robot in a series of authorised new novels.

American parents have many bees in their bonnets but they’re particularly prickly when it comes to issues of homosexuality in children’s books. Now The Guardian reports that “US publishing giant Scholastic has insisted that it “does not censor books” in the wake of a fierce row over US children’s author Lauren Myracle, who was asked to rewrite her latest book Luv Ya Bunches to remove “offensive” language and a same-sex couple if she wanted it to be included in the company’s school book fairs.” Myracle is a perennial favourite on the American Library Association’s annual banned books list which records titles that are most requested to be removed from public and school libraries in the US. Three to Tango, a book which features a pair of male penguins who raise an orphaned chick has topped the list for the last few years because of its homosexual content.

A new publication of his letters reveals that despite the literary success of his masterpiece The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot found himself broke, exhausted and on the verge of a nervous brokedown reports Andrew Pierce in The Telegraph.

Also in The Telegraph is the news that Jack Kerouac’s estranged daughter is fighting a battle for control of the late, heavy drinking, Canadian, Beat idol’s estate. At the time of his death in 1968, his estate was valued at $1. Now it’s estimated to be worth $20 million and Kerouac’s only child Jan wants a share. According to the report:

When Kerouac died, he left everything to the woman he had loved most throughout his live – his mother, Gabrielle. When she died five years later, she in turn left everything to Kerouac’s third wife, Stella Sampas – setting in train the events that led to Stella’s family managing the Kerouac estate for the past 19 years.

Now that legacy has been sensationally called into question, with a ruling by a Florida court that the will that Gabrielle signed, leaving everything to her daughter in law, was, in fact, a forgery.

Related posts:

1. Unfinished and Lost Novels: David Foster Wallace and Jack Kerouac
2. In Book News This Week: Sarah Palin, Harry Potter, Philip Roth, John Keats and John Le Carre
3. Oddest Book Titles
4. Call a Book, a Book
5. William Golding: Writer and rapist?