Edmond Caldwell, a longtime Millions commenter and member of the golden age of lit blogging, has passed away. Caldwell was the founder of The Chagall Position and Contra James Wood. Read a tribute to Caldwell by his friends Boyd Nielson and Joseph G. Ramsey at Dispatches, here.
A Worthy Send-Off
The Perils of Being a Hermit
It might not be a good idea to tell this to bookish readers, but it looks like loneliness can kill you.
Spotlight on Matt Dojny
Year In Reading contributor Matt Dojny has his comics work highlighted by the good folks at The Rumpus.
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Claire Vaye Watkins Takes Home the Dylan Thomas Prize
Kudos to Claire Vaye Watkins for taking home the Dylan Thomas Prize! Worth £30,000, the prize went to Watkins because, in the words of of the chair of the judging panel, she possesses “some of Dylan Thomas's extraordinary skill in the short story form.” (Read more about Watkins’s work in Geoff Mak’s review of her 2012 book Battleborn.)
The Austen Effect
Jane Austen is a rare figure. Acclaimed as one of the most brilliant authors in modern history, she has a popularity that few of her peers can match, as evidenced by her posthumous sales and huge numbers of dedicated fans. How did her work hit the sweet spot of broad appeal and scholarly fame? In the WSJ, Alexander McCall Smith provides a theory. (h/t The Paris Review Daily)
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Carolyn:
Thanks for mentioning EC (and Boyd and Joe’s worthy tribute)! This is just to point out that, far more than being a blogger, EC was a dedicated and deeply-educated writer who had lots of short stories out there, as well as having had a well-reviewed novel, Human Wishes/ Enemy Combatant, print-published in 2012. To quote Jacob Bacharach, at HuffPo (from a piece called “All Good Books are Weird Books”):
“And then there’s my recent favorite, a small-press novel called Human Wishes / Enemy Combatant by Edmond Caldwell, which manages to combine the surreal landscapes of airport hotels with a living Matryoshka doll with a wrenching account of the massacre of Lydda in the 1948 Palestine War with a rambunctious conspiracy to abduct and replace James Wood—yes, that James Wood—with a subversive double.”
Edmond had another novel to his credit, as well, unpublished, that I hear was also quite wonderful. Here’s to hoping that both books find a new life in the coming years. Once in a blue moon quality does (or should), briefly, rise to the top…