1kaggsy
Firstly, a very happy new year to all Viragoites - 2022 was a strange one and I just hope that 2023 turns out to be a bit nicer.
I noticed that we didn't have a salon in which to hang out last year, so I thought I would start one today for general chat about our favourite publisher and what we've been reading, news and views etc.
Thanks go to Jane for giving so much to the group last year with her threads on Virago cover art, and also the wonderful monthly reading event she set up. At present, there is nothing specific planned for 2023, but if anyone has a Virago reading project they would like to suggest, do let us all know.
In the meantime - happy reading in 2023! 😊📚
ETA: I'm sorry the picture is so huge, but I don't quite know how to make it smaller here...
2SassyLassy
>1 kaggsy: It's a lovely picture as it is. Making it smaller might have lost some of the detail and the light.
As to how to do that, there is a wonderful Virago thread Things Every Woman (and Man) Should Know about HTM: and other techie questions answered by christiguc. Hope this link works: https://www.librarything.com/topic/59470#n7140295
Post 9 is probably the one you want
As to how to do that, there is a wonderful Virago thread Things Every Woman (and Man) Should Know about HTM: and other techie questions answered by christiguc. Hope this link works: https://www.librarything.com/topic/59470#n7140295
Post 9 is probably the one you want
3bleuroses
Gorgeous painting, Karen - and thank you for opening the Virago Salon for 2023.
Adding another thank you to Jane for enriching this group with her Virago Cover art and the monthly reads. Beautiful and inspiring, it was lovely to see so much group participation!
I hope everyone had a lovely Holiday season and I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Bookish New Year! 💚📚
Adding another thank you to Jane for enriching this group with her Virago Cover art and the monthly reads. Beautiful and inspiring, it was lovely to see so much group participation!
I hope everyone had a lovely Holiday season and I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Bookish New Year! 💚📚
4mrspenny
Thanks for setting up the 2023 salon Karen - lovely art work and it looks such a cosy reading nook especially on a rainy day. I am very nostalgic for the library on a rainy day as it was one of Richmal Crompton's favourite places on a wet day. I read a biography of Richmal last year.
Best wishes to everyone for 2023 and happy reading.
I am reading through the Persephone titles on my shelf and have just finished The New House. I really enjoyed it.
Best wishes to everyone for 2023 and happy reading.
I am reading through the Persephone titles on my shelf and have just finished The New House. I really enjoyed it.
5Sakerfalcon
Happy New Year everyone! Many thanks Karen for opening up this lovely room for us!
I have just got new bookcases and hope to have all my Persephones, British Library Women Writers, Dean Street Press and Handheld Classics shelved together very soon! (My Viragoes are already mostly organised that way.)
I have just got new bookcases and hope to have all my Persephones, British Library Women Writers, Dean Street Press and Handheld Classics shelved together very soon! (My Viragoes are already mostly organised that way.)
6lippincote
Likewise on the pic Karen, and to Jane for her hard work last year. Hope everyone is well.
7kaggsy
>2 SassyLassy: Thank you! I'll check the post out, but yes - the picture is glorious, isn't it??
8kaggsy
>3 bleuroses: Thanks Cate, and a Happy New Year to you too. Here's to plenty of Bookishness in 2023!
9kaggsy
>4 mrspenny: It looks so cosy and welcoming, doesn't it? We are in the middle of dark and gloomy January in the UK so warm and brith sunshine would be lovely!
And happy reading with the Persephones, too!
And happy reading with the Persephones, too!
10kaggsy
>5 Sakerfalcon: Happy new year to you too!
Jealous of your new bookcases - I would look to organise my books a bit more but right now they're all over the place!
Jealous of your new bookcases - I would look to organise my books a bit more but right now they're all over the place!
11kaggsy
>6 lippincote: Happy new year Barbara, and hope you're doing well too! :D
12kac522
Karen has set up a new Virago project for 2023: come join us to celebrate 50 years of Virago!
Master thread here to see the year's schedule: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348159#
February's thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348128#
Master thread here to see the year's schedule: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348159#
February's thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348128#
13kaggsy
Hi all, I just stumbled across this upload of the old BBC adaptation of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont on YouTube so thought I would link it here in case anyone fancies taking a look!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Le2CpN5r9o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Le2CpN5r9o
14bleuroses
News from Virago Press!
Donna Coonan, the longest-running editor of the Virago Modern Classics list, has announced she will step down in June after nearly 20 years.
During her tenure Coonan has acquired more than 200 books for the list, as well as revitalising core authors such as Elizabeth Taylor, Zora Neale Hurston, Rosamond Lehmann and Nora Ephron. She has published Daphne du Maurier’s oeuvre twice over, leading to a major reappraisal of the writer’s reputation and legacy.
Key classics acquisitions include Patricia Highsmith, Barbara Pym, Ann Petry, Mary Renault, Gayl Jones, Mary McCarthy, Muriel Spark, Janet Frame and Attia Hosain. She also started a children’s list, with highlights including Nina Bawden, Joan Aiken, Rumer Godden and previously unpublished stories by Noel Streatfeild.
Last year, on the frontlist, Coonan published The Fran Lebowitz Reader and two novels by Gayl Jones, which were Pulitzer and National Book Award finalists. Other publications include Wayward by Dana Spiotta and the forthcoming debut Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan.
For the list’s 30th anniversary, Coonan launched the covetable hardback designer classics collection, which continues to be added to each year; for the 40th anniversary in 2018 she spearheaded the return of the iconic green spines and created a series that won marketing and design awards – and made Nora Ephron’s Heartburn a top-20 paperback bestseller 35 years after first publication.
In addition, she has commissioned introductions by a wide range of high-profile writers – Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, Maggie O’Farrell, George Saunders, Tayari Jones, Kamila Shamsie, Stanley Tucci, Jane Campion, Sarah Waters, Jilly Cooper, Helen Oyeyemi, Carmen Maria Machado and Gillian Flynn, among others.
Lennie Goodings, chair of Virago Press, said: “Not since Carmen Callil founded the Virago Modern Classics in 1978 has there been a Classics editorial director like Donna Coonan. Over her 20 years working on this jewel in the crown of Virago, her passion, deep literary knowledge and creativity has given the series new authors, award-winning designs and new introductions by marvellous contemporary writers. We are hugely grateful to her for her inspired and dedicated work. She is splendid and leaves us with a great legacy. I thank her deeply.”
Coonan told The Bookseller she is "excited to explore new opportunities", adding: “It has been a source of professional and personal pride to be at the helm of the VMCs, a list which, it’s no understatement to say, has changed literary history. I’ve worked with so many of my literary heroes and it’s been a privilege to build on Carmen’s legacy of celebrating unfairly neglected women writers and challenging the accepted canon. The list feels like part of my DNA, so it’s a difficult decision to say goodbye to what has for many years been my dream job, and I’ll miss my wonderful colleagues at Little, Brown. But the time has come to explore new challenges.”
Donna Coonan, the longest-running editor of the Virago Modern Classics list, has announced she will step down in June after nearly 20 years.
During her tenure Coonan has acquired more than 200 books for the list, as well as revitalising core authors such as Elizabeth Taylor, Zora Neale Hurston, Rosamond Lehmann and Nora Ephron. She has published Daphne du Maurier’s oeuvre twice over, leading to a major reappraisal of the writer’s reputation and legacy.
Key classics acquisitions include Patricia Highsmith, Barbara Pym, Ann Petry, Mary Renault, Gayl Jones, Mary McCarthy, Muriel Spark, Janet Frame and Attia Hosain. She also started a children’s list, with highlights including Nina Bawden, Joan Aiken, Rumer Godden and previously unpublished stories by Noel Streatfeild.
Last year, on the frontlist, Coonan published The Fran Lebowitz Reader and two novels by Gayl Jones, which were Pulitzer and National Book Award finalists. Other publications include Wayward by Dana Spiotta and the forthcoming debut Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan.
For the list’s 30th anniversary, Coonan launched the covetable hardback designer classics collection, which continues to be added to each year; for the 40th anniversary in 2018 she spearheaded the return of the iconic green spines and created a series that won marketing and design awards – and made Nora Ephron’s Heartburn a top-20 paperback bestseller 35 years after first publication.
In addition, she has commissioned introductions by a wide range of high-profile writers – Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, Maggie O’Farrell, George Saunders, Tayari Jones, Kamila Shamsie, Stanley Tucci, Jane Campion, Sarah Waters, Jilly Cooper, Helen Oyeyemi, Carmen Maria Machado and Gillian Flynn, among others.
Lennie Goodings, chair of Virago Press, said: “Not since Carmen Callil founded the Virago Modern Classics in 1978 has there been a Classics editorial director like Donna Coonan. Over her 20 years working on this jewel in the crown of Virago, her passion, deep literary knowledge and creativity has given the series new authors, award-winning designs and new introductions by marvellous contemporary writers. We are hugely grateful to her for her inspired and dedicated work. She is splendid and leaves us with a great legacy. I thank her deeply.”
Coonan told The Bookseller she is "excited to explore new opportunities", adding: “It has been a source of professional and personal pride to be at the helm of the VMCs, a list which, it’s no understatement to say, has changed literary history. I’ve worked with so many of my literary heroes and it’s been a privilege to build on Carmen’s legacy of celebrating unfairly neglected women writers and challenging the accepted canon. The list feels like part of my DNA, so it’s a difficult decision to say goodbye to what has for many years been my dream job, and I’ll miss my wonderful colleagues at Little, Brown. But the time has come to explore new challenges.”
15kaggsy
Thanks Cate. Such a shame. I see that the wording of the ad for her replacement is getting some traction on Twitter…
16Sakerfalcon
A birthday tribute to Virago, from The Guardian (UK): ‘People still do not want women to succeed or be equal. While that is true, you need Virago’: 50 years of the warrior publisher
