FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jimmy Franco
Director of Publicity
212-364-1321
jimmy.franco@hbgusa.com
GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING TO PUBLISH PULITZER PRIZE WINNING
AUTHOR OSCAR HIJUELOS’ LAST NOVEL, TWAIN AND STANLEY ENTER
PARADISE, AND LAST KNOWN SHORT STORY, ANOTHER SPANIARD IN THE
WORKS
New York, NY—July 15, 2014
Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, is honored to announce the acquisition of
Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise, the last novel by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Oscar Hijuelos. In
addition, Grand Central has acquired a never-before-published short story by Hijuelos, Another Spaniard
in the Works. Gretchen Young, VP, Executive Editor, acquired world rights to the novel and short story
from Jennifer Lyons, President of Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency. The book, the short story, and an
audio edition of the novel are tentatively scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2015.
Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise was inspired by the real life friendship between two towering figures
of the late 19th century, famed author and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry
Morton Stanley. The novel employs a variety of narrative forms to imagine key points along the arc of
their 37-year relationship, from their early days as journalists in the American West, to their long
admiration and support of each other’s writing, their mutual hatred of slavery, their common suffering
from bouts of bad health, and their social life together in the dazzling literary circles of the period. In
addition, Hijuelos conjures up a fictitious journey to Cuba undertaken by Twain and Stanley to search for
the latter’s adoptive father (both men actually had visited Cuba, though separately and at different
periods of life).
Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise is also a study of Twain’s complex bond with Mrs. Stanley, the
bohemian portrait artist Dorothy Tennant, who introduced Twain and his wife to the world of séances
and mediums after the tragic death of their daughter. The book uses correspondence, memoir, and
third person omniscience to re-create the singular voices of these outsized personalities and to examine
the intersection of their lives in a long vanished world.
Although Hijuelos did not live to see its publication, Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise was a labor of love
that occupied his creative energies for nearly ten years. The result is a fascinating and deeply felt
historical fantasia that utilized the full range of Hijuelos’ gifts and stands as a worthy coda to a brilliant
writing career.
Another Spaniard in the Works is Oscar Hijuelos’ last known unpublished short story, about a young
musician’s chance meeting with John Lennon in New York City in 1980.
Of the acquisition, Gretchen Young said, “I consider it a great privilege to have a role in publishing this
truly unique book, which will add another dimension and further luster to the impressive literary legacy
of Oscar Hijuelos.”
The following is part of a note Hijuelos wrote that accompanied the manuscript:
"...I can assure you that I have in mind the production of a novel that...will contain many an interesting
story about the warm Mississippi-hearted Twain and the jungle seasoned Stanley and their friendship, a
one of a kind book that no one will have seen before."
Oscar Hijuelos was born of Cuban parentage in New York City in 1951. He received the Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction for his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, and he was also a recipient of the Rome Prize,
the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and
the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. He died in October 2013. Since then, tributes in his memory
have been numerous, among them the recent unveiling of a Historic Landmarks Preservation Center
plaque on his boyhood apartment building in NYC.
About Hachette Book Group:
Hachette Book Group is a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the
third-largest trade and educational publisher in the world. HBG publishes under the divisions of Little,
Brown and Company, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Grand Central Publishing, Orbit, Hachette
Books, Hachette Nashville, and Hachette Audio.