Comments on: No Poe?

By: The Dusty Bookcase

The Dusty Bookcase — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 00:08:12 +0000

Donna, would your colleague be Nancy Lusignan Schultz? If so… well, it is a small world. I’m very much an admirer of her work. Though my interest goes way back, I’ve only just begun my work on Maria Monk. My hope is that leads to a book – something of a follow-up to last year’s John Glassco biography. Not that they are necessarily related – though both place Montreal front and centre and feature a certain amount of hoaxery. Central to Maria’s hoax is the fact that her Awful Disclosures were penned by an American… perhaps more than one, but that is just one question I aim to solve. Many thanks for the compliments. We’re both certainly fans of yours.

By: daseger

daseger — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:43:11 +0000

Wow, Brian, Maria is new to me, but it looks very consequential—I think the book must have been excluded because Maria herself was Canadian; the Library’s list seems to be restricted to American authors rather than just American books. I’d love to hear more about your project–I have a colleague at SSU who wrote a book on the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, MA. And I love your blog–as well as your wife’s, of course.

By: daseger

daseger — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:35:38 +0000

What a nice compliment, Julie! This list has a definite bias towards reform and advocacy, I think.

By: daseger

daseger — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:33:53 +0000

I really do feel that it is a glaring omission, Susan.

By: daseger

daseger — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:30:58 +0000

Oh no, I feel too powerful! Didn’t mean to teach/blog–I guess I can’t help myself! No worries, though; you’re all smart enough to seek other sources…

By: daseger

daseger — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:29:14 +0000

Great choices: I’m with you on Fannie, DD! No Wharton at all!

By: susangeckle

susangeckle — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:37:02 +0000

Good point. The Baltimore football team is named the Ravens after the famous poem, penned in Baltimore. He is beloved throughout the world, not just the US.

By: The Dusty Bookcase

The Dusty Bookcase — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:38:20 +0000

Any list is an invitation to caustic critics such as myself. Still, I can’t help but note that of the of the 88, only four were published in the last forty years. But, oh, wasn’t the ‘sixties a glorious decade: 12 titles! It seems that in the 20th century only the ‘nineties failed.

Poe should be there… though for me – perhaps this says more about my current area of study – the glaring omission is Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, which is generally accepted as the bestselling American book before Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:25:12 +0000

Ha! Elements of Style. Can’t tell you how often I recommend that book. Should be required reading in school.

I, too, wish Donna was my teacher (I mean, in a classroom; she’s my teacher on the web).

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 19:58:16 +0000

and really – Ralph Nader? Ugh.
Fascinating. Thank you Donna. I wish I were one of your students.