Category Archives: books

The Second Sex, The New Translation

Posted on by

Thanks in part to articles like this one from Jessa of Bookslut fame, The Second Sex, the Second Time, I’ve been keeping my eye open for the promised new translation to come out.

If you want the short history of the translation issues, Maitresse has a good summary — apparently Knopf is publishing it in the US in April, but when I couldn’t find any evidence of this on Amazon US, I went over to Amazon UK and ordered a copy. (Thanks to my Aunt Daphne for the Christmas check.)

I first read The Second Sex as a 21 year old living in New York City. I’d gone to New York to be an Artist, to work in publishing, to be fabulous. And of course, I found myself living in Astoria, not really getting along with my roommates (I pity anyone who lived with me before I was about 35), and suffering my subway ride every morning the way only a Very Short Person can suffer the NYC subway. So I read big books, hard books, books that took all my concentration so I didn’t notice that my big romantic city experience included many hours of the day lost in a sea of men’s armpits.

One of the books I read that year was The Second Sex. I don’t remember much of it except for de Beauvoir’s insistence that women must find a way to become fully human Subjects, rather than remaining Objects … and my deep determination to do that.

It’s about 800 pages, this beautiful big hardcover book that arrived today. Oh my. It will be interesting to see the true translation, as well as to revisit it through older eyes …

share save 171 16 The Second Sex, The New Translation

More on Writers and Typewriters

Posted on by

Writers and typewriters: Barnes, Lively, Holroyd and Moggach | Books | The Guardian.

My favorite quote:

Michael Holroyd

I kept my typewriter after getting a laptop. My first draft was written with a pen, the second on my old friend the typwriter, and finally I used the computer. But something then went wrong. I could not find new ribbons for my old machine. So now I still keep the typewriter conspicuously on my desk and (hiding my laptop) use it to fool burglars who come looking for state-of-the-art technology.

share save 171 16 More on Writers and Typewriters

No Country for Old Typewriters – A Well-Used One Heads to Auction – NYTimes.com

Posted on by

No Country for Old Typewriters – A Well-Used One Heads to Auction – NYTimes.com.

Christie’s, which plans to auction the machine on Friday, estimated that it would fetch between $15,000 and $20,000. Mr. McCarthy wrote an authentication letter — typed on the Olivetti, of course — that states:

“It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose. … I have typed on this typewriter every book I have written including three not published. Including all drafts and correspondence I would put this at about five million words over a period of 50 years.”

share save 171 16 No Country for Old Typewriters A Well Used One Heads to Auction NYTimes.com