... this book just came up in conversation recently and I can't for the life of me remember the details: Evelyn Waugh: The Height of His Powers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What's odd for me is that Put Out More Flags is one of my favorite Waugh novels, but I do tend to forget it when asked to list them. I'll try to take that writer's message to heart and recommend the book more often!
'“The serious writer,” Sissman once wrote, “must take serious vows . . . a vow of silence, except through his work. A vow of consistency, sticking with writing to the exclusion of other fields. A vow of ego-chastity, abstaining from adulation. A vow of self-regard, placing the self as writer before the self as personality.”'
What's odd for me is that Put Out More Flags is one of my favorite Waugh novels, but I do tend to forget it when asked to list them. I'll try to take that writer's message to heart and recommend the book more often!
ReplyDeleteThe reviewer, the late L.E. Sissman, was "a poet in a three-piece suit", and an essayist:
ReplyDelete'“The serious writer,” Sissman once wrote, “must take serious vows . . . a vow of silence, except through his work. A vow of consistency, sticking with writing to the exclusion of other fields. A vow of ego-chastity, abstaining from adulation. A vow of self-regard, placing the self as writer before the self as personality.”'
I remember Sissman quite well, Dave. He was a very good poet, in fact.
ReplyDelete