Unabridged by Diana Asier Publisher: Sichuan People's Publishing House

Introduction · · · · · ·
Author of The Twilight Is Falling, an Outstanding British Female Editor in the 20th Century

——Diana Asier’s Workplace Notes

After retirement, I look back on my work experience and write this "Real Record of a Worker in the Literary Circle"

In the long river of life, what does work really mean?

What kind of work stories will the first generation of women who “make a living on their own” encounter?

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Editor's Recommendation:

◎ She is the founding director of Andre Deutsch Publishing, one of the leading independent publishing companies in London, and works for her boss Andre. She admits that she prefers to be an "editor" rather than a "publisher". Therefore, this book is more like a work diary for a working person, and with Asher's unique frankness, she talks about the place and meaning of work in a long life.

◆The industry’s dilemma remains thorny:

★Images impact text, and people are unwilling to take the trouble to dig into a book even if there is only a little resistance.

★There is a conflict between literary value and commercial value, publishers and general readers are stratified, and being true to one's own judgment begins to mean losing money.

◆I am a literary editor who "generates energy for love", and also a working person who loves life even more:

★The reason I can resist sales pressure, advertising troubles, and endless repetitive chores is that I love these books.

★I like this job very much, but I hate working overtime on weekends and having breakfast meetings.

◆After retirement, all work is gone like smoke:

★After the retirement anxiety passed, I felt ten years younger.

★The working years are over, but I am not sad at all, rather I feel relieved.

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◎ Her list of authors is “all stars”: Nobel Prize winner VS Naipaul, Pulitzer Prize winners John Updike and Philip Roth, feminist literary pioneers Simone de Beauvoir and Jane Rhys, Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood... Having witnessed the ups and downs of Western literary world for half a century, Asier removes the filter of “literary sentiment” for us, and uses a sharp perspective to calmly observe the big names in the literary world.

◆Good writers are not perfect, they just overcome their limitations in writing: When Jane (Jane Rhys) writes well, she is much more insightful than herself in everyday life.

◆Refuse to pretend to be profound, and resist the mysterious power of "disguising garbage as art": "I can't understand this, it's beyond my understanding, or maybe it's very special." - This is a betrayal of wisdom.

◆Reflections on class solidification and information cocoons: Most of this class live in London, are university-educated, belong to the upper-middle class of the British, and took over the publishing industry from booksellers in the late 19th century. ... Most of us like books and sincerely want to understand the difference between good and bad writing. But I suspect that our "good" is often only good in the concept of this social class.

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◎ As the first generation of women in the family to "earn a living on their own", they are both pioneers and limited. All the rebellions and compromises are written openly for you to see:

◆The publishing industry is run by a lot of women who earn very little and a few men who earn much more… To a large extent, the environment I grew up in shaped me into a man-pleasing person.

◆I won't mistakenly think I'm in love with someone when I'm not really in love with him/her... maybe it's because I'm romantic enough or maybe realistic enough to make sure I don't marry a man I don't love.

◆Andre, a short man, sat in a large room with a desk as spacious as a conference table; while Diana - powerful, majestic and not petite - was crammed into a broom closet. In those days, the world of books was also like this.

—Margaret Atwood

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◎Li Mengsu, former chief reporter of Sanlian Life Weekly and cultural writer, wrote a preface and recommended:

Asir is a woman of strong, lively temperament, resolute and wise, yet she is strangely attracted to tragic characters. She observes each lost soul with almost painful honesty...precision, clarity and composure are not only the way she observes the world, but also the style of her writing. The reader may feel a certain coldness and alienation, but strangely, he does not feel chilled.

◎A small-format hardcover book with a blue and gray cover and a printed painting of an office desk scene by Asir—looking back on my work career, I spent the last time at my desk as an editor, processing my memories “unabridged.”

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Contents:

In this book, we follow Asir into the world of these literary giants of the post-World War II generation. The book is mainly divided into two parts:

The first part tells the story of how Asier worked at the BBC News Department after graduating from Oxford University, and then met publisher Andre Deutsch, and together they founded the legendary independent publishing house, Andre Deutsch Publishing. With her unique wit and rare frank prose style, she tells the details of her fifty-year long publishing career;

The second part focuses on recalling the author's interactions with six authors, including Naipaul and Jane Rhys, and details the experiences and personality traits of these authors. They are true and interesting anecdotes of famous writers and a valuable contribution to literature.

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Media Recommendation:

★Writing this book is almost the best experience of all my writing experiences.

—Diana Asier

★Publishing professionals and those interested in literature will find Asir's portraits of famous contemporary writers irresistible.

——Publishers Weekly

★This memoir of a career in book publishing should satisfy anyone who cares about 20th-century literature.

—The Washington Post