Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 1/31

elling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 1/31

Best-Selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Yorkshire, England. Her 27th novel is due in April. There have been 82 million copies of her books sold worldwide, translated into 40 languages. She began working at 15 as a typist for her local newspaper and worked her way to a solid career in journalism. In 1979, A Woman of Substance, was published. It was a sensation. I may never have read it if not for Joanne's donations. I was expecting something along the lines of Danielle Steele. I'm happy to report that it is more in the tradition of classic English literature. It is the story of Emma Harte, who works her way up from poverty to vast wealth and power through sheer will, natural intelligence and the willingness to assume risk. She outworks everyone in her sphere. As I was reading it, I thought of how people at the opposite ends of the political spectrum would react to it. Surely conservatives would love it, and the far left would hate it. Yet it sold millions of copies, and surely some readers were liberals. Emma Harte does not let astronomical odds deter her. She is an inspiration. I believe in the possibility of success, despite the naysayers. There are just too many examples of it in real life in the western world not to be true. Liberals seem to hate the idea that wealth, for those who haven't inherited it, can be acquired only through risk, which leads to colossal failure for some. Emma Harte has taken a place in my heart beside two other plucky fictional Englishwomen who share the same first name: the eponymous protagonist of Jane Austen's second best novel, and Mrs. Peel of the '60's TV series The Avengers, brought to life so delightfully by the beautiful Diana Rigg. The novel is not perfect. Its 900 pages could have used another tweak. It is much more descriptive than I like. Maybe it demonstrates laziness on my part, but I prefer minimal description that allows the reader to use his imagination, which will occur anyway. Bradford also does a lot of what my literary angel, Victoria Valentine, calls head-hopping, quickly shifting the point of view from one character to another. This usually bothers only traditionalists. I was never confused as to which character was represented. The novel is almost entirely devoid of humor. When I think of my first, Close to the Edge, my only regret is not having injected a bit of humor into it. On a scale of five, I rate A Woman of Substance four stars. Bradford wed her husband Robert, an American producer, in 1963, and moved to the States. They are still married. He has produced the adaptions of her novels. I look forward to the filmed version of A Woman of Substance, which I added to my list at Netflix.
It was a spring-like day, and people were in a buying mood. I thank my customers, especially my buddy Bob Rubenstein, who overpaid for a Howdy Doody DVD. His second novel, The White Bridge, which I had the honor of editing, will be issued soon. He is teaching classes on racism at Touro College, and one of the books he has assigned is his first novel, Ghost Runners. "Now if I had four classes, with 20 students per, every semester," he told me, "that would be a lot of book sales." I couldn't resist zinging him. I poked him in the chest and said: "I knew there was a capitalist in there somewhere." The White Bridge is in part an anti-capitalist screed. He laughed. How ironic that a proponent of free markets such as I was its editor. Please forgive me.
Here's to capitalism! I love it.
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