“Can we throw Fedallah overboard? If you’ve read the book, you know Fedallah is a bore; he gets in the way. All the stuff that he does should be done by Ahab. John said, ‘Heave him overboard.’ So I threw him out.” – Ray Bradbury, talking to John Huston about Fedallah (image via Moby-Dick, or The Card Game)

This August, as we prepare to unleash a truly remarkable fall catalog, MobyLives will be taking a bit of a breather. We’ll still post the occasional news item or feature, but for most of this month we’ll be posting a roundup like this every morning. We will, of course, remain active on Twitter and Facebook. We hope you have a great August, and that you’ll keep checking in with us!

• German authors have joined their American counterparts and are rallying against Amazon, in support Bonnier, aka “German (well, actually Swedish but also mostly German) Hachette.” They, too, have a letter and it is biting and fantastic: “Amazon’s customers have, until now, had the impression that these lists are not manipulated and they could trust Amazon. Apparently that is not the case. Amazon manipulates recommendation lists. Amazon uses authors and their books as a bargaining chip to exact deeper discounts.” Over 1,000 writers signed the letter, including Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek. (The New York Times)
• Laura Miller profiles Drac Von Stoller (formerly Kevin Stoller), a self-published author who has written 155 books. (Salon)
• The Guardian calls Amazon‘s Russ Grandinetti “the most powerful man in publishing.” Not everyone (in fact, almost everyone) in publishing is happy about that—Authors United’s Douglas Preston compared talking to Grandinetti to “talking to a five-year-old.” (The Guardian)
• Good old-fashioned editing: Jane Austen, like many authors of her generation, edited with pins. Here are the pins used for her manuscript The Watsons. (Open Culture)
• New Directions‘ Tom Roberge has a great piece in Publishing Perspectives about why we need independent bookstores now, more than ever: “Amazon positions itself as a consumer advocate. Which is insane.” (Publishing Perspectives)
• Louise Erdrich has won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for distinguished achievement, recognizing her career of writing books that portray contemporary Native American life. The Dayton prizes aim to recognize writing that has “led readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view.” (The Associated Press)
• The shortlist for The Thurber Prize For Books That Are Often Not Very Funny has been released. (The Washington Post)
• J.K. Rowling continues to crank out more Harry Potter content for the Pottermore website, with the second short story in as many months taking place in the wizarding universe. This one is about Celestina Warbeck, a character never seen in the seven books, but one that Rowling says has been “part of the Potter world ever since its inception, making an early appearance in the short-lived ‘Daily Prophet’ series” she wrote for her fan club. Warbeck is a singing sorceress whom Rowling says is a favorite of hers, inspired in looks and style by Shirley Bassey. (Today)

Today’s passage from Moby-Dick: 

Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows — a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues — every stately or lovely emblazoning — the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls; all these are but subtile deceits, not actually inherent in substances, but only laid on from without; so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge — pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear colored and coloring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?–Chapter 42 

Today’s song: “Bye Bye Big Ocean” by A Sunny Day in Glasgow