Princeton Authors Launch Enhanced E-editions for School Use: The Classic Tales Behind Big New Films
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
By: Anne Matthews

Princeton authors launch $0.99 e-editions of classic tales behind big new films, with study/discussion guides for school use. Proceeds benefit libraries/ literacy programs. Enjoy the movie, read the e-book, start a conversation--and email your questions.

Two Princeton writers have launched Scarlet Oak Press, publishing enhanced e-editions of the classic texts behind major new films. Designed for book club, library, classroom and family enjoyment, all Scarlet Oak titles are $0.99 via Kindle, and available for lending. Sales benefit U.S. libraries and literacy projects.

Scarlet Oak's first "Page to Screen" booklist includes:

• "The Three Musketeers" (film version opens October 2011)
• "The Best of Sherlock Holmes: Stories and Novels" ("Game of Shadows," starring Jude Law and Robert Downey, Jr., opens December 2011)
• "The Mysterious Island" (the Jules Verne adventure, with Michael Caine, opens February 2012)
• "A Princess of Mars" (the source for Disney's "John Carter," opens March 2012)
• "Raven: Dark Tales from Poe" ("The Raven," starring John Cusack, opens March 2012.)

"See the movie, enjoy the e-book, start a conversation," say Will Howarth and Anne Matthews, who also collaborate on fiction and film as "Dana Hand."("Deep Creek," their debut novel, was named by the Washington Post a Best Novel of 2010.)

For each Scarlet Oak e-book, they create a professionally-edited text, craft a special introduction and page-to-screen history, offer an annotated study/discussion guide, and add live links, maps or illustrations.

They also take questions. E-mail queries and comments on any Scarlet Oak title are always welcome, whether from book clubs, teachers, parents or grandparents.

"Digital classics, personal attention," say Scarlet Oak's publishers, who have jointly spent over eight decades helping students and alumni investigate the power of story via page and screen. Anne Matthews is a Pulitzer finalist in nonfiction and has taught popular literature and media history at Princeton and New York University. Will Howarth is a pioneer of digital humanities at Princeton, where his courses ranged from pre-colonial America to postmodern film; he also served as Editor-in-Chief of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau.

Scarlet Oak Press takes its name from Henry Thoreau's favorite tree, whose colors are last to ripen, last to fade. Each leaf is "borrowed fire...a late and unexpected glory worth waiting for."

For more information, please go to: www.scarlet-oak-press.com.