Complete Thomas Bernhard in English: A Checklist with Pictures

Thomas Bernhard’s books have been translated and published by a variety of presses from the major (Knopf) to the tiny (Ariadne), across decades, with many of them out of print for long stretches, so I thought it would be helpful to those interested in Bernhard to see everything in one place.

Complete Joseph McElroy, in hardcover, with pictures

One of my favorite writers is the sorely under-read, brilliant, monstrously talented Joseph McElroy. Author of eight novels (and a book of short stories, forthcoming from Dalkey Archive), there’s probably never been a time in his career when all of his books have been in print once. Two of his books have never been issued in paperback, languishing unread on behind-the-register bookcases with triple-digit price tags on them. (I was once in a bookstore which had eleven copies of Hind’s Kidnap, priced to move at $110 each.)

Forthcoming/recent books of note

I’ve seen a lot of blogs rounding up the rest of 2010’s releases, but they’re all mentioning the same books (Franzen, Moody, Auster, etc) and missing out on some of the most interesting titles. Here are a bunch of forthcoming and recent titles which are noteworthy:

*FOUR new Thomas Bernhard books getting published in English for the first time–one Bernhard is great news, four is amazing

Cesar Aira’s The Literary Conference

The Literary Conference is the newest novel available in English from the prolific Cesar Aira, bringing the total works available to five (of his seventy or so books). Like the others (excepting The Hare), The Literary Conference is a very short work—a mere 90 pages—published as part of New Directions’ reincarnated Pearl series (formerly known as the Bibliot series) . . .

David Markson 1927-2010

A completely unfuckwithable, original writer is dead. Other people can sum up his career better than I could, and his books absolutely speak for themselves. This is a sad day. I corresponded with Mr. Markson a little bit several years back–I had published a review of Vanishing Point in which I had managed to make a mistake–and he wrote to me notifying me of my error. I wrote him back apologizing and explaining . . .