A Passion for Books by Harold Rabinowitz

One supposes that we are not far from the day when graduate dissertations will speculate on the role of dogs and cats in literature of the late 20th century and early 21st, and reflect on what it means to have a pet as a muse.Īlso popular on flaps are Web sites, so writer and reader can communicate, and gritty skills. (Villard, 1999), wrote: 'He lives in northern New Jersey with his wife and daughter, and spends a lot of time in Washington County, New York, with his two dogs, Julius and Stanley.' Who was named and who wasn't? For instance, Jon Katz, novelist and nonfiction writer, in his flap for 'Running to the Mountain' Pets, after spouses and children of course, stand alone, although one wonders which are really more important. The rest of the book's cover copy is dreamed up by other people and can get lost, so to speak, but not the writer's mini-me. Moreover, writers seem to feel that these minuscule aperçus are so important that not only do they compose them themselves, but often have them published twice, once on the flap and once again in the back of the book itself. 'She lives in New York City with her husband and cats.' Or he 'lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two dogs.' Own versions, autobiographies actually, for their books' back cover flaps.Īnd many of them suffer from serious but gentle cases of adorableness, i.e. The information related is bare bones stuff, to be sure, but nonetheless authors put a lot of time into crafting their O doubt years from now those afflicted with bibliomania will look back and be puzzled as to why so many of our present-day writers included their dogs andĬats and other curious items and achievements in their book flap 'About the Author' sketches. BOOKS OF THE TIMES Muses Wag Their Authors By MARTIN ARNOLD

A Passion for Books by Harold Rabinowitz