Monday, March 31, 2008

Karen Essex



I started a new session of my “Sneak Peek at Next Year’s Bestsellers” class two weeks ago, and we read a book called Stealing Athena by Karen Essex (published by Doubleday). The book, to pare it down, is about the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. It looks at two time periods – the turn of the 19th century when Lord Elgin was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and lived in Constantinople with his wife Mary Nisbet, and eras earlier during the time of the building of the Parthenon. My students had a few questions for the author, so I started with this one:

Dear Ms. Essex,
This may seem superficial, but I have to start by asking you about the cover art, because it really attracted our attention. I happen to believe that you can actually tell a lot about a book by its cover. Do you agree? We were wondering if you selected the art for the cover, or what role you played in cover design, and what you and your publisher are trying to convey with the cover?
Thanks!
Lynn Rosen

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