I read a great book a few days ago, titled The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure, edited by C.D. Rose. I grabbed this book off the library shelf mostly because of its great title. We, as teachers and students, are so accustomed to studying revered authors and canonical works that we are unaware (and understandably so) of how many authors could have become just as renowned if history would have gone a different way. Thinking in terms of “literary failure” is a label I just could not resist. Once I dove in, however, I couldn’t help but wonder if any of it was real. Were these anecdotes sad or silly, or perhaps a bit of both?
This book describes, in short and fascinating vignettes, various writers throughout history that most of us have never heard of—some by way of their own faults, others through sheer circumstantial accidents. One author, who seems to have written what could have been one of the most influential novels in the post-WWI era, inadvertently left his one and only manuscript on a train as he journeyed through London.
Another author wrote over 50 pieces of fiction about life in Vienna, but it was not his trouble finding a publisher that steered him to anonymity. Rather, it was his suffering from bibliophagy that ruined him, a rare condition that leads people to compulsively eat books. After the author was satisfied with a piece he had written, his final act was to literally consume it. Not surprisingly, he battled indigestion most of his life and ultimately died of ink poisoning.
Virgil, Franz Kafka, Emily Dickinson, and other acclaimed authors did not want most of their works published, and they asked those close to them to destroy their writings upon their respective deaths. Fortunately for us, those authors’ wishes were not followed, and the literary world is better for it. However, another author described in Literary Failure had much more obedient friends and family, and thanks to them, his name is not among those other famous writers who have shaped literary history. Alas, his work died with him.
Readers should be made aware that this book is one of the cleverest and most elaborate ruses one may find on a library shelf. It’s all in good fun, and part of the appeal of the book is its ridiculousness and the lengths to which it will go to poke at the often pretentious nature of literary creation. There are many more examples of strange occurrences that have (fictionally) led potentially excellent writers never to reach the acclaim they may have deserved and that have been bestowed upon so many of their fellow artists. The line, the book pretends, between Ernest Hemingway or Virginia Woolf or Walt Whitman and some guy we’ve never heard of is a thin one. If you are interested in author biographies or the development of literary canons—or more appropriately here, funny and self-reflective commentary on the nature of literature—I recommend this fun and informative(?) book. Enjoy!
This book describes, in short and fascinating vignettes, various writers throughout history that most of us have never heard of—some by way of their own faults, others through sheer circumstantial accidents. One author, who seems to have written what could have been one of the most influential novels in the post-WWI era, inadvertently left his one and only manuscript on a train as he journeyed through London.
Another author wrote over 50 pieces of fiction about life in Vienna, but it was not his trouble finding a publisher that steered him to anonymity. Rather, it was his suffering from bibliophagy that ruined him, a rare condition that leads people to compulsively eat books. After the author was satisfied with a piece he had written, his final act was to literally consume it. Not surprisingly, he battled indigestion most of his life and ultimately died of ink poisoning.
Virgil, Franz Kafka, Emily Dickinson, and other acclaimed authors did not want most of their works published, and they asked those close to them to destroy their writings upon their respective deaths. Fortunately for us, those authors’ wishes were not followed, and the literary world is better for it. However, another author described in Literary Failure had much more obedient friends and family, and thanks to them, his name is not among those other famous writers who have shaped literary history. Alas, his work died with him.
Readers should be made aware that this book is one of the cleverest and most elaborate ruses one may find on a library shelf. It’s all in good fun, and part of the appeal of the book is its ridiculousness and the lengths to which it will go to poke at the often pretentious nature of literary creation. There are many more examples of strange occurrences that have (fictionally) led potentially excellent writers never to reach the acclaim they may have deserved and that have been bestowed upon so many of their fellow artists. The line, the book pretends, between Ernest Hemingway or Virginia Woolf or Walt Whitman and some guy we’ve never heard of is a thin one. If you are interested in author biographies or the development of literary canons—or more appropriately here, funny and self-reflective commentary on the nature of literature—I recommend this fun and informative(?) book. Enjoy!