Fitzcarraldo Editions acquires music critic Penman's first book for 20 years

Fitzcarraldo Editions has acquired the first book in 20 years by “pioneering” music critic Ian Penman, charting innovation by black musicians and the white ones who followed them.

Publisher Jacques Testard acquired world rights to It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track direct from the author. The book will be published in paperback and ebook on 14th August 2019.

Described by Iain Sinclair as “a laureate of marginal places”, Penman began his career in 1977 at the NME and went on to write for a string of publications. He previously published Vital Signs: Music, Movies, and Other Manias (Serpent’s Tail), a 1998 collection of his work.

Penman’s new book has a cast of some of the greatest characters in pop music history including James Brown, Charlie Parker, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan and Prince.

Testard said: “Going back to the 1980s and his time at the NME, Ian Penman was the first writer to bring theory into writing about contemporary pop. He is a pioneering critic and one of the most exciting prose stylists around.

“I'm so thrilled that Ian Penman is joining Fitzcarraldo Editions and convinced this book will be an event.”