This a joy. Showcases the value of lengthy consideration via Substack.

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Some exciting news: I have signed a contract to write 'Reading George Eliot: An Introduction' for the Routledge series Reading Literature Today. It seems like the book I have been preparing to write my whole career.

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Jerome Klinkowitz's The Life of Fiction (1977), a celebration of "SuperFiction," was the most exciting work of criticism I'd ever seen when I first came across it as an undergraduate. Reading it again reminded me of the excitement and myopia of a young person’s enthusiasms. neglectedbooks.com/?...

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"Whatever happened to those great old practical jokes?" From Esquire in 1974, feast upon Stanley Elkin's inquiry, "A La Recherche du Whoopee Cushion": classic.esquire.com/...

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I don't know about that big "you are either a primary source or a secondary source person" thing. Aren't most of us both, at least us literary types? I can't imagine caring much about the secondary debate about the primary texts if you aren't invested in some way in them.

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