My Mother has long been convinced that good things do not happen to good people. Much as I love and respect this smart and insightful woman I am happy to see her disproved, at least in one instance -- the critical, commercial, and prize-snagging success of Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, Blogmaster Flash of the classical/new music world with therestisnoise.com, and author of the bedside hit The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, now out in paperback from Picador.
In addition to accolades for . . . Noise from The New York Times Book Review and other newspapers (remember them?) and journals near and far, Alex recently copped a $500,000 (over five years) MacArthur Fellowship (aka a "genius award"), and last night in London walked away with the £10,ooo Guardian First Book Award, "open to debut works across all genres."
The book-business mad Brits have also managed to pry out Alex's future publishing plans with TheBookseller.com's Katie Allen reporting deals inked "over there" for two works:
Fourth Estate has acquired two new books from Alex Ross. UK and Commonwealth rights were bought from Dorothy Vincent at Janklow & Nesbit by Fourth Estate editor Robin Harvie for a "very healthy five-figure sum". Listen to This will be published in 2010. A selection of Ross' essays from the New Yorker, it will introduce basic classical music concepts and give an alternative view of pop music. Wagnerism: How a Composer Shaped the Modern World will be published in 2014. Ross will explore the myth of Wagner and his impact on politics, modern poetry, painters and pop culture, from heavy metal to "The Lord of the Rings".
As we say on the South Side, You go, Alex! And, on the North Side, it could not have happened to a nicer or more deserving guy.
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