The Inverted Pyramid is a 1924 novel by Bertrand Sinclair. It follows the lives of the Norquay brothers, who pursue their fortunes in the logging industry of British Columbia, Canada. It was originally published by Little, Brown, and Co., and was republished by Ronsdale Press in 2011 as part of Vancouver's 125th anniversary. [1]
The novel follows the Norquay brothers Rod, Phil, and Grove, from 1909 to 1920. They find success in the booming logging sector, and start a trust company, the Norquay Trust. Through greed and mismanagement, the Trust fails and the brother's fortunes are lost. [2] Rod Norquay is the novel's primary protagonist, and his relationship with the potentially mixed-race Mary Thorn provides a romantic element. [2]
The novel was originally published by Little, Brown, in a single edition, in January 1924. The publisher had low hopes for sales for the novel; Sinclair was better known for his Western novels, and The Inverted Pyramid was considered a "literary" novel by Little, Brown. They purposefully held the book back to avoid the competitive Christmas book-buying season. Unlike many of his earlier novels, The Inverted Pyramid was not serialized. A "pulp" version was published by A.L. Burt, also in 1924. [3] The book was republished by Ronsdale Press, in 2011. It was selected as one of ten books essential to the history of British Columbia by the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia and British Columbia Poet Laureate Brad Cran. [2]
Ford Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature.
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. was an American writer and the 1934 Democratic party nominee for Governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
The Jungle is a 1906 novel by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair (1878–1968). The novel portrays the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. Sinclair's primary purpose in describing the meat industry and its working conditions was to advance socialism in the United States. However, most readers were more concerned with several passages exposing health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meat packing industry during the early 20th century, which greatly contributed to a public outcry which led to reforms including the Meat Inspection Act. Sinclair said of the public reaction, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
William Trevor KBE was an Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he was widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
George Norman Douglas was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind. His travel books such as his 1915 Old Calabria were also appreciated for the quality of their writing.
Albert Payson Terhune was an American author, dog breeder, and journalist. He was popular for his novels relating the adventures of his beloved collies and as a breeder of collies at his Sunnybank Kennels, the lines of which still exist in today's Rough Collies.
Clive John Sinclair was a British author who published several award-winning novels and collections of short stories, including The Lady with the Laptop and Bedbugs.
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel Angels & Demons. The Da Vinci Code follows "symbologist" Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris causes them to become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene having had a child together.
Madeleine Thien is a Canadian short story writer and novelist. The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature has considered her work as reflecting the increasingly trans-cultural nature of Canadian literature, exploring art, expression and politics inside Cambodia and China, as well as within diasporic Asian communities. Thien's critically acclaimed novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, won the 2016 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards for Fiction. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and the 2017 Rathbones Folio Prize. Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages.
Pierre Stephen Robert Payne was an English-born author, known principally for works of biography and history, although he also wrote novels, poetry, magazine articles and many other works. After working in Singapore and China, he moved to the United States in 1946 and became a professor of English literature. From 1954 onwards he lived as a writer in New York.
Mary Elizabeth Mann, née Rackham, was a celebrated English novelist in the 1890s and early 1900s. She also wrote short stories, primarily on themes of poverty and rural English life. As an author she was commonly known as Mary E. Mann.
Alexander Baron was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for his highly acclaimed novel about D-Day, From the City, from The Plough (1948), and his London novel The Lowlife (1963).
The Daring Twins: A Story for Young Folk is a mystery novel for juvenile readers, written by L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books. It was first published in 1911, and was intended as the opening installment in a series of similar books.
Little, Brown Book Group is a UK publishing company. Since 2006 Little, Brown Book Group has been owned by Hachette UK, a subsidiary of Hachette Livre. The company was sold to Hachette UK by Time Warner who owned Little, Brown UK and USA.
Bertrand William Sinclair (1881–1972) was a Canadian novelist known for a series of westerns set in the United States, and also for a series of novels set in his home province of British Columbia.
Leslie Jamison is an American novelist and essayist. She is the author of the 2010 novel The Gin Closet and the 2014 essay collection The Empathy Exams. Jamison also directs the non-fiction concentration in writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts.
Patrick deWitt is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. He was born on Vancouver Island at Sidney, British Columbia, and later lived in California and Washington state; he currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Neel Mukherjee, FRSL is an Indian English-language writer based in London. He is the author of several critically acclaimed novels. He is also the brother of famous television anchor and editor Udayan Mukherjee.
Frances McNeil, also writing as Frances Brody, is an English novelist and playwright, and has written extensively for radio.
Cynan Jones is a Welsh writer, who lives and works in Ceredigion. Jones published his first novel, The Long Dry, in 2006. In 2010 he published Le Cose Che Non Vogliamo Più in Italian. He later published three novels between 2011 and 2014. In autumn 2016, Cove became his sixth published work. His work has been translated into other languages, and his short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies and publications like Granta and New Welsh Review. The story A Glass of Cold Water aired on BBC Radio 4 in May 2014.
