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Coveted prize creates scarcity
Copies of local Pulitzer winner's book are on the way, publisher says
Date published: 4/24/2006
By BECKY PIEDEL If you want a copy of Claudia Emerson's "Late Wife," take a number. The 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry is on backorder, and it will be another few weeks before a reprint is complete. Paperback reprints should be finished on May 10 and hardcover editions on May 17, said Libby Adams, a customer service representative for Lou-isiana State University Press, the book's publisher. LSU Press' inventory was drained less than two hours after the Pulitzer winners were announced last Monday, Adams said. "As soon as it hit the news, we went straight to order it. Requests have come from all over," she said. Since its release in 2005, "Late Wife" has sold 1, 797 copies, Adams said. LSU Press currently is reprinting 10,000 copies of the text, and 5,000 are on backorder already.
Because of the backorder, the book has not been available on local shelves. Mona Albertine, co-owner of Jabberwocky Children's Books & Toys in downtown Fredericksburg, said she sold her store's last three copies on Thursday. The book is not something the children's store normally would carry, but the local interest for it is high and people are asking for it, Albertine said. Interest is also high at local Borders and Waldenbooks stores. "Whenever Pulitzers are announced, it generates interest," said Beth Bingham, spokeswoman for Borders Group Inc. Bingham says copies are on order for Borders and Waldenbooks, and because Fredericksburg is Emerson's hometown, stores here will receive more copies. The University of Mary Washington, where Emerson is an associate professor of English, is out of copies for now, too. The UMW bookstore has a waiting list and is happy to take special orders, said trade book manager Kathy Burchell. Five copies circulate through the Central Rappahannock Regional Library system, but all are either checked out or on hold. And readers hoping to snag a copy from amazon.com will have to wait for at least a month, too. For now, all book dealers and prospective readers can do is wait. LSU Press has experience with Pulitzer winners, though. It has published the works of three other prize winners, including two other poets. In 1981, John Kennedy Toole won the prize for fiction writing for his novel "A Confederacy of Dunces." Poets Henry Taylor and Lisel Mueller won the Pulitzer for poetry in 1986 and 1997, respectively, Taylor for his work "The Flying Change," and Mueller for her collection titled "Alive Together." The publisher knows that with the Pulitzer Prize comes demand. "It's a pretty rushed job for that reprint," said LSU Press marketing manager Barbara Outland. "We're trying to get the books in stock as soon as possible." To reach BECKY PIEDEL:
Date published: 4/24/2006
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