-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Traister [SMTP:traister@POBOX.UPENN.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 11:28 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject:
Baker
Thomas Heard writes:
> Anybody hear much about Baker BEFORE his
crusade began?
(1) There are, as readers of this list know,
lots of reasons to disagree
with
*Double Fold* on its merits. Somehow, the spectacle of *ad
hominem*
attacks on Baker himself is
*not* the most edifying or productive prospect
one can envisage of expressing disagreement with his
work or his views.
(2) The answer to Mr. Heard's question
happens, in any case, to be "Yes."
As someone else has already pointed out on this list, he is an
excellent,
well-known, and important
novelist. He is, in addition, the author of an
extremely interesting book about authorship (*U &
I*). And he is a
journalist for
(among other places) *The New Yorker*. Walk into any
bookstore. You don't actually need to do anything
quite so low as to
*read* his books
if you dislike him so much; simply count what you find of
his work vs. what you find by *any*
archivist or librarian. Is there a
clue here?
(3) In a spirit of impatience, I might add
that criticism of Baker for not
being
an archivist, a librarian, or "public" in the way in which he
runs
his self-created newspaper
archive is, it seems to me, ill-judged,
mean-spirited, and likely to be remarkably unproductive. The guy
has at
least put his own money and
effort where his mouth is, and he has done so
in an area that has nothing to do with his main
business in life, writing.
That kind
of stuff counts in the arena of public perception. And should.
Daniel Traister, Curator, Research
Services
Rare Book and Manuscript
Library
Van Pelt-Dietrich
Library
University of
Pennsylvania
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