Talk:Sam Leith

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Wikipedia notable?[edit]

I am not seeing any notability for wikipedia - he seems to be a journalist that is in the press because of his work? Any notable awards? There is a book review from April 2011 that is about the book...? Off2riorob (talk) 13:46, 18 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, as Off2riorob states, almost entirely incomprehensibly, Sam Leith is a journalist who is in the press because of his work. As a journalist, no less. He writes a column in the Evening Standard, by far the leading London newspaper with a daily circulation of 600,000. It is not a minor column, but a nearly full page commentary page opposite the editorial page. It appears every Monday. The editorship of the Evening Standard grants his work the same prominence as Simon Jenkins, Matthew d'Ancona and Rachel Johnson He also writes regularly for The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. He has recently been nominated for an http://www.editorialintelligence.com award. It is all referenced on the page. Anyway, since when do you have to win "awards" to be regarded as a notable journalist?

Seriously though, is it really possible to start a credible page on wikipedia petitioning for an article's deletion referring to "a book review from aprol 2011 that is about the book...?" aprol? A book review about the book? Is it really OK to start these pages while drunk? Kont Dracula (talk) 23:00, 21 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You shouldn't edit while your drunk, please don't. Yes, "that is about the book" , as in, it asserts notability about the book, it is more about the book than the author. One person's perceived, "petitioning for an article's deletion" is another's, requesting additional assertions of notability. A notable journalist is one that independent people and publications write about - or one that has won notable awards, as yet that level of notability has not imo been asserted in this biography, that does not mean that there is a desire to delete it. Off2riorob (talk) 23:14, 21 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I certainly would not edit while drunk. My reference to apparent drunkeness was in response to your near incomprehensible opening to this page where you failed to capitalise, or spell correctly, the word April. But to answer your question, yes Sam Leith is a journalist who is notable for all his journalism - all well referenced on the page. As for awards won by Sam Leith, a 37 year old journalist, well, none of these British journalists' Wikipedia pages (which took me five minutes to search for, off the top of my head) contain any references to awards -- it is not a requirement of notability: Suzanne Moore, Jane Moore, Simon Jenkins, Matthew d'Ancona, Ben Macintyre, Shamim Chowdhury, Matt Lynn etc. Anyway, on your talk page, you dismissed Sam Leith's nomination for the Editorial Intelligence Columnist Of The Year 2011 as "industry backslapping". Surely all awards have an element of that. All of his co-nominees are deemed notable enough to have Wikipedia pages, none of which you have challenged the notability. However, he has not won the Nobel prize for literature, if that is what you are asking. Sam Leith's notability stems from his prominent and regular journalistic contributions to many of the serious, high-end newspapers published in the UK, including The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. He was also on the judging committee of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non Fiction 2011. All of his co-judges are deemed notable enough to have Wikipedia pages, none of which you have challenged the notability. Perhaps, in the interests of fairness, you should not be so coy about stating what has prompted you to question the notability of this particular journalist when so many other articles listed above bear far fewer references denoting notability. Kont Dracula (talk) 08:00, 22 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Published books[edit]

Now 9 listings, all as full title (publisher, year) from library records; Library of Congress if available, otherwise WorldCat. Source records:

Dead Pets LCCN 2006-386840
Daddy OCLC 195631671
Sod's OCLC 806268424
Coincidence LCCN 2011-431049
You OCLC 756273059
Words LCCN 2012-5866
Write ... How OCLC 989038167
Write ... Master LCCN 2017-52670
Our Times OCLC 1129688625

The 9 may be all titles of books with main author Leith, now covered in those two online catalogs (see External links). All seem to be 1st editions of the titles. Two "US edition" may be revised in title only. --P64 (talk) 21:17, 14 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]