Notes to "What strange intoxication was it that he drew from books?"

* Mr Garnett is David Garnett, son of translator Constance Garnett. At the time of the publication of The Common Reader, David was running a bookshop near the British Museum and had received a lot of acclaim for Lady into Fox, a novel in which a man's young wife turns into a fox. It's one of those odd books that keeps popping up on the periphery of my reading, which means I really ought to give it a try. I see that the edition I've linked to is in the Collins Library series from McSweeney's, which is a very good sign.

** Mr Masefield, whom you most likely were more quick to identify, is John Masefield, author of, among other books, the children's classic The Box of Delights.

Notes to "The Glamorous World of Publishing, Revealed!"

* Ruk was played by Ted Cassidy, who at this point is better known from his earlier role as Lurch on The Adams Family. Cassidy would go on to appear in two other episodes of Star Trek, and in one of them he played yet another of the original series' many memorable villains, Gorn.

Or, more properly, Gorn!!!!!



Oh, it's also worth noting that the episode featuring Ruk, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", was written by Robert Bloch.

Notes to "Lawrence thinks critics influential and should realize their responsibility," or, D. H. goes to parties

*Jeannette Winterson, in Art Objects, writes, of her Pentacostal upbringing,

I found it necessary to smuggle books in and out of the house and I cannot claim too much for the provision of an outside toilet when there is no room of one's own. It was on the toilet that I first read Freud and D. H. Lawrence, and perhaps that was the best place, after all.

Not what one thinks of as bathroom books, at least in publishing industry terms, but it's hard to argue with her thinking here.

Notes to "All that is required in studying them is patience," or, On youthful enthusiasm

* Which, speaking of enthusiasm, landed Richardson a wife! According to Richardson's Wikipedia entry,

He married Annie Dillard, after she wrote him a fan letter about Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind.

Now that's enthusiasm!

Notes to Thumbnails

* Though I do feel it's my duty to note that Sumner, for all his sanctimony, was serious--even fierce--in his abolitionist beliefs, for which he deserves credit, and that his recovery and his determination to return to public life after his caning by Preston Brooks on the Senate floor does him honor. Was he likeable? By most account, no. Would I have been glad to have been on his side most of the time? Hell, yes.

Notes to Tolstoy's zoo

* A coworker, on learning that I wasn't all that into Bauhaus design, exclaimed, "But you have a shaved head and black-framed glasses and are the most disciplined person I know!"

Notes to The show must go on!

*Amusingly, the Wikipedia entry for Nelly Ternan features an italicized subhead near its top that informs readers that

Ellen Ternan is sometimes confused with her near contemporary, the Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry, whose career was more distinguished, but who did not have an affair with Dickens.