John Sutherland

John Sutherland’s Life of Stephen Spender was published in May 2004. Formerly of University College London, he teaches at Caltech in Pasadena.

In the LRB Archive:

• Diary: Do books have a future? · 25 May 2006

• Wolfish: the pushiness of young men in a hurry · 5 May 2005

  • Publisher by Tom Maschler
  • British Book Publishing as a Business since the 1960s by Eric de Bellaigue
  • Penguin Special: The Life and Times of Allen Lane by Jeremy Lewis

• I am a cactus: Christopher Isherwood and his boys · 3 June 2004

  • Isherwood by Peter Parker

• A Plumless Pudding: The Great John Murray Archive Disaster · 18 March 2004

• Diary: The crisis in academic publishing · 22 January 2004

• Doughy: Conrad’s letters · 4 December 2003

  • The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad: Vol. VI 1917-19 edited by Laurence Davies, Frederick R. Karl and Owen Knowles

• Diary: My Grandmother the Thief · 21 August 2003

• Be Rapture Ready! The end times are nigh!: Armageddon - out of here · 5 June 2003

  • Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

• He ate peas with a knife: Douglas Jerrold · 3 April 2003

  • Douglas Jerrold: 1803-57 by Michael Slater

• Hoist that dollymop’s sail: New Victorian Novels · 31 October 2002

  • Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
  • The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

• Was Ma Hump to blame? on Aldous Huxley · 11 July 2002

  • Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual by Nicholas Murray
  • The Cat's Meow directed by Peter Bogdanovich

• Everyone’s Pal on Louis de Bernières · 13 December 2001

  • Red Dog by Louis de Bernières
  • Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World by Louis de Bernières

• Long live the codex: the future of books · 5 July 2001

  • Book Business: Publishing Past, Present and Future by Jason Epstein

• A Dangerously Liquid World: Alcoholics Anonymous · 30 November 2000

  • Bill W. and Mr Wilson: The Legend and Life of AA’s Co-Founder by Matthew Raphael

• Paper or Plastic? on Richard Powers · 10 August 2000

  • Gain by Richard Powers

• Wife Overboard: Thackeray · 20 January 2000

  • Thackeray by D.J. Taylor

• What can happen when you make contact in a MOO on crime and passion in a virtual world · 29 July 1999

  • My Tiny Life: Crime and Punishment in a Virtual World by Donald Dibbell

• At Home in the Huntington visits the Isherwood archive and considers where best to store the family silver · 10 June 1999

• Diary listens to REM · 18 February 1999

  • An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture by Roger Scruton

• Who owns John Sutherland? on intellectual property in the digital age · 7 January 1999

• The Fight for Eyeballs reports on the Drudge Report · 1 October 1998

• Home Stretch: David Storey · 17 September 1998

  • A Serious Man by David Storey
  • Saville by David Storey

• Think again, wimp: Virgin Porn · 16 April 1998

  • Sugar and Spice: A Black Lace Short Story Collection edited by Kerri Sharp
  • Ménage by Emma Holly

• Enisled on Matthew Arnold · 19 March 1998

  • A Gift Imprisoned: The Poetic Life of Matthew Arnold by Ian Hamilton

• Flying the Coop: Mama Trollope · 19 February 1998

  • Fanny Trollope: The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman by Pamela Neville-Sington

• The Browse Function · 27 November 1997

  • Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web by Evan Schwartz

• Black Electricities · 30 October 1997

  • The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. Vol. XXV: January-December 1850 edited by Clyde de L. Ryals and K.J. Fielding
  • Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle, edited by K.J. Fielding and Ian Campbell

• Unplug the car and let’s go! · 21 August 1997

  • The Car that Could: The Inside Story of GM’s Revolutionary Electric Vehicle by Michael Shnayerson

• Bounty Hunter · 17 July 1997

  • Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
  • The Man of the Forest: The Authorised Version by Zane Grey
  • The Thundering Herd: The Authorised Version by Zane Grey

• Higher Man · 22 May 1997

  • The Turner Diaries by ‘Andrew Macdonald’

• Marksmanship · 14 November 1996

  • From Potter’s Field by Patricia Cornwell
  • Cause of Death by Patricia Cornwell

• Huff and Puff · 3 October 1996

  • We Should Know Better by George Walden
  • All Must Have Prizes by Melanie Phillips

• Devil take the hindmost · 14 December 1995

  • Shadows of the Future: H.G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy by Patrick Parrinder
  • The History of Mr Wells by Michael Foot
  • A Modern Utopia by H.G. Wells, edited by Krishan Kumar

• The Great NBA Disaster · 19 October 1995

• Sticktoitiveness · 8 June 1995

  • Empire of Words: The Reign of the ‘OED’ by John Willinsky

• Desmondism · 23 March 1995

  • Huxley: The Devil’s Disciple by Adrian Desmond

• The Great Copyright Disaster · 12 January 1995

  • Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright by Mark Rose
  • Crimes of Writing: Problems in the Containment of Representation by Susan Stewart
  • The Construction of Authorship: Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature edited by Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi

• An Inspector Calls · 10 November 1994

  • Assessment of the Quality of Education: Circular 3/93
  • 1996 Research Assessment Exercise: Circular RAE96 1/94

• Exceptionally Wonderful Book · 6 October 1994

  • Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh

• Among the Picts · 18 August 1994

  • Stained Radiance: A Fictionist’s Prelude by J. Leslie Mitchell
  • The Speak of the Mearns by Lewis Grassic Gibbon

• When in Rom · 9 June 1994

  • The English Poetry Full-Text Database Editorial Board: John Barnard, Derek Brewer, Lou Burnand, Howard Erskine-Hill and Daniel Karlin et al

• All of Denmark was at his feet · 12 May 1994

  • John Steinbeck: A Biography by Jay Parini

• Convenience Killing · 7 April 1994

  • What’s Wrong with America by Scott Bradfield
  • The History of Luminous Motion by Scott Bradfield
  • Greetings from Earth by Scott Bradfield

• The Annual MLA Disaster · 16 December 1993

  • The Modern Language Association of America: Program for the 109th Convention, Vol. 108, No. 6
  • The Modern Language Association: Job Information List

• Binarisms · 18 November 1993

  • Complicity by Iain Banks
  • Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

• How not to do it · 22 July 1993

  • The British Library: For Scholarship, Research and Innovation: Strategic Objectives for the Year 2000
  • The Library of the British Museum: Retrospective Essays on the Department of Printed Books edited by P.R. Harris

• Elementary · 8 July 1993

  • Air and Fire by Rupert Thomson
  • Dreams of Leaving by Rupert Thomson
  • The Five Gates of Hell by Rupert Thomson

• My Missus · 13 May 1993

  • Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain, 1914-1950 by Joseph McAleer
  • American Star: A Love Story by Jackie Collins

• Ripping Yarns · 8 April 1993

  • Tennyson by Michael Thorn
  • Tennyson by Peter Levi

• Well done, you forgers · 7 January 1993

  • The Two Forgers: A Biography of Harry Buxton Forman and Thomas James Wise by John Collins
  • Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship by Anthony Grafton

• Heliotrope · 3 December 1992

  • Robert Louis Stevenson: Dreams of Exile by Ian Bell

• After-Lives · 5 November 1992

  • Keepers of the Flame: Literary Estates and the Rise of Biography by Ian Hamilton
  • Testamentary Acts: Browning, Tennyson, James, Hardy by Michael Millgate
  • The Last Laugh by Michael Holroyd
  • Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

• On the Salieri Express · 24 September 1992

  • Doctor Criminale by Malcolm Bradbury
  • The Promise of Light by Paul Watkins
  • The Absolution Game by Paul Sayer
  • The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman by Louis de Bernières
  • Written on the body by Jeanette Winterson

• Down, don, down · 6 August 1992

  • Decline of Donnish Dominion by A.H. Halsey
  • Millikan’s School: A History of the California Institute of Technology by Judith Goodstein

• The Fire This Time · 28 May 1992

• Lucky Brrm · 12 March 1992

  • Brrm! Brrm! by Clive James
  • Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
  • Faustine by Emma Tennant

• How to die · 13 February 1992

  • Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying by Derek Humphry

• Trollopiad · 9 January 1992

  • The Chronicler of Barsetshire: A Life of Anthony Trollope by R.H. Super
  • Anthony Trollope: A Victorian in his World by Richard Mullen
  • Trollope: A Biography by N. John Hall

• Drabble’s Progress · 5 December 1991

  • The Gates of Ivory by Margaret Drabble
  • Happily Ever After by Jenny Diski
  • Of Love and Asthma by Ferdinand Mount

• Sod off, readers · 26 September 1991

  • Rude Words: A Discursive History of the London Library by John Wells
  • Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English by Geoffrey Hughes

• Down with DWEMs · 15 August 1991

  • ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education by Charles Sykes
  • Tenured Redicals: How politics has corrupted our Higher Education by Roger Kimball

• Self-Made Women · 11 July 1991

  • The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present edited by Virginia Blain, Isobel Grundy and Patricia Clements
  • The Presence of the Present: Topics of the Day in the Victorian Novel by Richard Altick

• Resentment · 21 March 1991

  • Francesca by Roger Scruton
  • Slave of the Passions by Deirdre Wilson
  • The Invisible Worm by Jennifer Johnston
  • The Secret Pilgrim by John le Carré

• Presidential Criticism · 10 January 1991

  • Victorian Subjects by J. Hillis Miller
  • Tropes, Parables, Performatives: Essays on 20th-Century Literature by J. Hillis Miller

• Nelly gets her due · 8 November 1990

  • The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin
  • The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant edited by Elisabeth Jay

• Devouring the pangolin · 25 October 1990

  • The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History by Robert Darnton

• A Terrible Bad Cold · 27 September 1990

  • Dickens by Peter Ackroyd

• Downhill Racer · 16 August 1990

  • Lying together by D.M. Thomas
  • The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole
  • Solomon Gursky was here by Mordecai Richler
  • Death of the Soap Queen by Peter Prince

• Royalties · 14 June 1990

  • CounterBlasts No 10. The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain’s Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens
  • The Prince by Celia Brayfield
  • The Maker’s Mark by Roy Hattersley
  • A Time to Dance by Melvyn Bragg

• John Sutherland writes about the Condition of English question · 5 April 1990

  • Exploding English: Criticism, Theory, Culture by Bernard Bergonzi
  • Professing Literature: An Institutional History by Gerald Graff

• New Ground for the Book Trade · 28 September 1989

• Shakespeare the Novelist · 28 September 1989

  • The Vision of Elena Silves by Nicholas Shakespeare
  • Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow
  • Buffalo Afternoon by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
  • The Message to the Planet by Iris Murdoch

• Jack and Leo · 27 July 1989

  • The Letters of Jack London edited by Earle Labor, Robert Leitz and Milo Shepard
  • Tolstoy by A.N. Wilson

• Facts Schmacts · 16 February 1989

  • The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography by Philip Roth

• Unhappy Childhoods · 2 February 1989

  • Trollope and Character by Stephen Wall
  • The Chronicler of Barsetshire: A Life of Anthony Trollope by R.H. Super
  • Dickens: A Biography by Fred Kaplan
  • Charlotte Brontë by Rebecca Fraser

• Reading Cure · 10 November 1988

  • The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals. Vol. IV: 1824-1900 edited by Walter Houghton, Esther Rhoads Houghton and Jean Harris Slingerland
  • Circulation: Defoe, Dickens and the Economies of the Novel by David Trotter
  • From Copyright to Copperfield by Alexander Welsh

• End of the Century · 13 October 1988

  • Worlds Apart by David Holbrook
  • Story of My Life by Jay McInerney
  • Forgotten Life by Brian Aldiss
  • Incline our hearts by A.N. Wilson

• Paliography · 15 September 1988

  • The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins by William Clarke
  • Wilkie Collins: Women, Property and Propriety by Philip O’Neill

• Flights from the Asylum · 1 September 1988

  • Mother London by Michael Moorcock
  • The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer
  • Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellmann
  • Happiness by Theodore Zeldin

• Bloodbaths · 21 April 1988

  • Misery by Stephen King
  • The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
  • Touch by Elmore Leonard
  • Sideswipe by Charles Willeford
  • Ratking by Michael Dibdin

• Big Bad Wolfe · 18 February 1988

  • The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

• French Air · 12 November 1987

  • The Foul and the Fragrant: Odour and the French Social Imagination by Alain Corbin, translated by Miriam Kochan
  • Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, translated by John Woods
  • The Double Bass by Patrick Süskind, translated by Michael Hofmann

• Martin Chuzzlewig · 15 October 1987

  • Dickens’s Working Notes for his Novels edited by Harry Stone

• World’s End · 1 October 1987

  • The Day of Creation by J.G. Ballard
  • The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally
  • In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
  • The House of Hospitalities by Emma Tennant

• Cromwell’s Coven · 4 June 1987

  • Witchcraft by Nigel Williams
  • Without Falling by Leslie Dick
  • Outlaws by George V. Higgins

• Very Nasty · 21 May 1987

  • VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov by Andrew Field

• Big Head · 23 April 1987

  • Thackeray’s Universe: Shifting Worlds of Imagination and Reality by Catherine Peters

• Poets and Pretenders · 2 April 1987

  • The Great Pretender by James Atlas
  • The Position of the Body by Richard Stern
  • The Setting Sun and the Rolling World by Charles Mungoshi
  • Conversations with Lord Byron on Perversion, 162 Years after his Lordship’s Death by Amanda Prantera

• Fiction and the Poverty of Theory · 20 November 1986

  • News from Nowhere by David Caute
  • O-Zone by Paul Theroux
  • Ticket to Ride by Dennis Potter

• Howard’s End · 18 September 1986

  • Redback by Howard Jacobson
  • Coming from behind by Howard Jacobson
  • Peeping Tom by Howard Jacobson

• Fuentes the Memorious · 19 June 1986

  • The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden and Carlos Fuentes
  • Where the air is clear by Carlos Fuentes, translated by Sam Hileman
  • Farewell to the Sea by Reinaldo Arenas, translated by Andrew Hurley
  • Digging up the mountains by Neil Bissoondath

• Carré on spying · 3 April 1986

  • A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
  • The Novels of John le Carré by David Monaghan
  • Taking sides: The Fiction of John le Carré by Tony Barley
  • John le Carré by Peter Lewis
  • A Servant’s Tale by Paula Fox
  • A State of Independence by Caryl Phillips

• Edgar and Emma · 20 February 1986

  • World’s Fair by E.L. Doctorow
  • The Adventures of Robina edited by Emma Tennant

• Carrying on with a foreign woman · 7 November 1985

  • Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
  • A Family Madness by Thomas Keneally
  • A Storm from Paradise by Stuart Hood
  • Samarkand by John Murray
  • The Sicilian by Mario Puzo
  • Putting the boot in as Dan Kavanagh

• No 1 Writer · 5 September 1985

  • Glitz by Elmore Leonard
  • LaBrava by Elmore Leonard
  • Stick by Elmore Leonard
  • The Hunting Season by J.K. Mayo

• Must they twinkle? · 1 August 1985

  • British Literary Magazines. Vol. III: The Victorian and Edwardian Age 1837-1913 edited by Alvin Sullivan
  • The Book Book by Anthony Blond

• Shuffling off · 18 April 1985

  • Death Sentences: Styles of Dying in British Fiction by Garrett Stewart
  • Forms of Feeling in Victorian Fiction by Barbara Hardy
  • Language and Class in Victorian England by K.C. Phillipps

• Red Stars · 6 December 1984

  • Wild Berries by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, translated by Antonia Bovis
  • The Burn by Vassily Aksyonov, translated by Michael Glenny
  • Fellow Travellers by T.C. Worsley
  • The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage
  • The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth
  • The Set-Up by Vladimir Volkoff, translated by Alan Sheridan

• The Great Exhibition · 6 September 1984

  • Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
  • Enterprise Red Star by Alexander Bogdanov, translated by Charles Rongle, edited by Loren Graham and Richard Stites
  • Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
  • Conversations in Another Room by Gabriel Josipovici
  • An Affair on the Appian Way by Michael Levey

• Johnsons · 7 June 1984

  • The Place of Dead Roads by William Burroughs
  • Angels by Denis Johnson
  • Moll Cutpurse: Her True History by Ellen Galford

• Star Warrior · 6 October 1983

  • Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas by Dale Pollock
  • Olaf Stapledon: A Man Divided by Leslie Fiedler

• Poles Apart · 5 May 1983

  • Give us this day by Janusz Glowacki, translated by Konrad Brodzinski
  • In Search of Love and Beauty by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
  • Listeners by Sally Emerson
  • Flying to Nowhere by John Fuller
  • Some prefer nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki, translated by Edward Seidensticker
  • The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki, translated by Edward Seidensticker
  • ‘The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi’ and ‘Arrowroot’ by Junichiro Tanizaki, translated by Anthony Chambers

• John Sutherland writes about the history of publishing · 17 February 1983

  • From Author to Reader: A Social Study of Books by Peter Mann
  • David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, edited by Nina Burgis
  • Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens, edited by Margaret Cardwell
  • Books and their Readers in 18th-Century England edited by Isabel Rivers
  • Mumby’s Publishing and Bookselling in the 20th Century by Ian Norrie
  • Reading Relations by Bernard Sharratt

• Short is sharp · 3 February 1983

  • Firebird 2 edited by T.J. Binding
  • Bech is Back by John Updike
  • The Pangs of Love by Jane Gardam
  • The Man Who Sold Prayers by Margaret Creal
  • Happy as a Dead Cat by Jill Miller

• Dark Places · 18 November 1982

  • Wise Virgin by A.N. Wilson
  • The London Embassy by Paul Theroux
  • The frog who dared to croak by Richard Sennett
  • Vintage Stuff by Tom Sharpe
  • Rogue Justice by Geoffrey Household

• Prodigals · 19 August 1982

  • A Prodigal Child by David Storey
  • The Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer
  • Ralph by John Stonehouse
  • The Man from St Petersburg by Ken Follett
  • The Patriot Game by George Higgins

• Crusoe was a gentleman · 1 July 1982

  • The Gentleman in Trollope: Individuality and Moral Conduct by Shirley Letwin
  • The Idea of the Gentleman in the Victorian Novel by Robin Gilmour

• Nationalities · 6 May 1982

  • Headbirths, or The Germans are dying out by Günter Grass, translated by Ralph Manheim
  • The Skating Party by Marina Warner
  • Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo
  • At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald

• Generations · 4 March 1982

  • The Survivors by Elaine Feinstein
  • Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss
  • The Great Fire of London by Peter Ackroyd
  • A Loss of Heart by Robert McCrum

• Aliens · 21 January 1982

  • Brave Old World by Philippe Curval, translated by Steve Cox
  • The Insider by Christopher Evans
  • Genetha From the Heat of the Day One Generation by Roy Heath
  • Sardines by Nuruddin Farah

• Young and Old · 15 October 1981

  • Life Stories by A.L. Barker
  • Many Men and Talking Wives by Helen Muir
  • Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
  • A Separate Development by Christopher Hope
  • From Little Acorns by Howard Buten
  • Fortnight’s Anger by Roger Scruton

• At the Gay Hussar · 20 August 1981

  • One and Last Love by John Braine
  • Sweetsir by Helen Yglesias
  • On the Yankee Station by William Boyd
  • Byzantium endures by Michael Moorcock
  • Heavy Sand by Anatoli Rybakov, translated by Harold Shuckman

• Sisters · 4 June 1981

  • Tit for Tat by Verity Bargate
  • Watching Me, Watching You by Fay Weldon
  • Maggie Muggins by Keith Waterhouse
  • Mr Lonely by Eric Morecambe

• Making strange · 19 March 1981

  • Other people by Martin Amis
  • The Magic Glass by Anne Smith
  • The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by Gerald Edwards
  • Sharpe’s Eagle by Bernard Cornwell
  • XPD by Len Deighton

• Masters of Art · 18 December 1980

  • Loon Lake by E.L. Doctorow
  • Alice fell by Emma Tennant
  • The Covenant by James Michener
  • Ancesteral Vices by Tom Sharpe

• In Praise of Follett · 16 October 1980

  • The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett
  • Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler
  • Loosely Engaged by Christopher Matthew
  • Imago Bird by Nicholas Mosley
  • A Quest of Love by Jacquetta Hawkes

• Copyright · 2 October 1980

  • Copyright: Intellectual Property in the Information Age by Edward Ploman and L. Clark Hamilton

• Pseud’s Corner · 17 July 1980

  • Duffy as Dan Kavanagh
  • Moscow Gold by John Salisbury
  • The Middle Ground by Margaret Drabble
  • The Boy Who followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

• Looking back · 22 May 1980

  • Metroland by Julian Barnes
  • The Bleeding Heart by Marilyn French
  • Creator by Jeremy Leven

• Likeable People · 15 May 1980

  • Book Society by Graham Watson
  • The Publishers Association Annual Report 1979-80
  • Private Presses and Publishing in England since 1945 by H.E. Bellamy

• House History · 24 January 1980

  • Allen Lane: King Penguin by J.E. Morpurgo

• Supersellers · 8 November 1979

  • The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
  • The Four Hundred by Stephen Sheppard

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