Discovering Great Writers - Via Twitter

     “I write fiction and I’m told it’s autobiography. I write autobiography and I’m told  it’s fiction, so since I’m so dim and they’re so smart, let them decide.”

Philip Roth 1933 - 2018

One of the signs of my advancing years and certainly since I began life in my 6th decade, is that I discover great writers, only when they have died. 

Sometimes I have read something of theirs over the years, during enforced study or just through recreational reading. Sometimes, I have not known who the writer was at the time. But more often, I haven't heard of the author or their works. 

This sends me into a kind of panic, that there is so much wonderful literature in the world that I can't hope to get around to reading, appreciating and maybe be inspired by.  Perhaps, if I had been an "academic" for longer, this might not have been the case. Before the technological age really kicked in and we only had real books to inform and entertain us, I read widely - or as widely as I could for my intelligence limit. Later, and certainly currently, I read e books, e documents, e everything (e as in "electronic) and my book collection gathers dust on the shelves. 

Rarely do I buy a book new, as Amazon is so easily accessed, where I can download a sample and then realise it is either not to my taste or that I haven't the time to read any more than the sample, anyway. This, however is usually due to my own shortening attention span rather than there not being enough hours in a day.

Occasionally I sort through my books with the intention of getting rid of some but find that I can't bear to part and in fact re read with great pleasure (the best places to read being in the garden in the sunshine, or cosy in bed before sleeping) 

So where do Twitter and dead writers come into this ? (Yes, dead poets also, without referring to the Robin Williams film)

Simply that I find that a writer is 'trending' on Twitter and investigation shows that he/she has recently died. News on radio, TV and other media usually confirms this and the anxious flutter in my stomach begins as I frantically turn to Google to see if I am "familiar with" - to use a literary term - this writers work. 

Perhaps if I was American, or Jewish or both, I might more likely have heard of and even read, Philip Roth who died today aged 85. As I am neither, I haven't. 

I suppose I could blame it on my English education, pre adulthood. After all I didn't read Of Mice and Men until I was about 30 and though I discovered Salingers' Catcher In The Rye "myself " when I was around 25, it would have been appreciated much more in my teen years. I did identify with it very much, later though, so I am always thankful that I found it, at whatever age.

Philip Rothwells biography can be found  here courtesy of The Guardian.

I would have researched more deeply myself but I am already half way through the morning and haven't  completed my list to download from Amazon.

Update some time in the future on how far I've progressed in my reading.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=roth+american&index=aps&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_63bbrs6dzf_b&adgrpid=50012175821&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=259090047086&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7940787649987241319&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046276&hvtargid=kwd-301998801537