ISO of tales of writerly/journalistic conflict and competition
December 28, 2022 10:56 AM Subscribe
Please hit me with your best stories about writers and journalists in competition and/or conflict with each other. Fiction or non-fiction welcome, published or personal, the nastier and more intense the better.
Seeking inspiration for backstory for a piece of fiction I'm writing. I know about Hemingway vs Fitzgerald, but I'd also like to hear about the pettier, lower stakes stuff, like Sailer vs. Gladwell. Specific juicy details of bad behaviour most welcome. More interested in the professional rather than the personal but will take what you've got.
Seeking inspiration for backstory for a piece of fiction I'm writing. I know about Hemingway vs Fitzgerald, but I'd also like to hear about the pettier, lower stakes stuff, like Sailer vs. Gladwell. Specific juicy details of bad behaviour most welcome. More interested in the professional rather than the personal but will take what you've got.
I'll admit I don't remember a thing about it, but Ann Patchett's Truth & Beauty is about her friendship with fellow author Lucy Grealy.
posted by jabes at 12:03 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jabes at 12:03 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
The novel About the Author by John Colapinto might qualify: "A writer ... capitalizes on the talent of his late roomate ..."
posted by JonJacky at 12:54 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 12:54 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I couldn't recall the title of a pertinent novel I once read, so I searched for "novel creative writing teacher plagiarizes student". I didn't find the novel I remembered, but there were other hits for different books with this plot!
posted by JonJacky at 7:24 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 7:24 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
A few years ago there were news stories about a frustrated author who created scams to steal unpublished manuscripts from other authors, both well known and obscure. One of the victims wrote about it here.
posted by JonJacky at 7:39 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 7:39 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Famous American science-fiction author Philip K. Dick wrote a letter to the FBI accusing famous Polish science-fiction author Stanislaw Lem of being the front for a sinister "Communist committee". Meanwhile, Lem held Dick in high regard, called him a "visionary", and translated his novel Ubik into Polish.
posted by JonJacky at 7:59 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 7:59 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
It does not get any more petty or bitter than Arkady Gornfeld vs. Osip Mandelstam.
A misunderstanding began when the publishing house, Land and Factory, failed to let Gornfeld know about the 1928 revision. Then, in a serious printing error, Gornfeld's name was left off the title page. Instead, Mandelstam's name was on Gornfeld's work.
The publishing house issued an apology. But Gornfeld had already concluded that Mandelstam purposely stole his work. He attacked the poet in a letter to the Red Evening Gazette, likening Mandelstam to a house guest who steals a fur coat from a hangar.
Mandelstam struck back, both at Gornfeld and the “trashy” translation industry, in his book The Fourth Prose, calling Gornfeld a sickly version of Georges Charles de Heeckeren d’Anthès, the killer of his fellow poet, Pushkin.
posted by johngoren at 11:02 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
A misunderstanding began when the publishing house, Land and Factory, failed to let Gornfeld know about the 1928 revision. Then, in a serious printing error, Gornfeld's name was left off the title page. Instead, Mandelstam's name was on Gornfeld's work.
The publishing house issued an apology. But Gornfeld had already concluded that Mandelstam purposely stole his work. He attacked the poet in a letter to the Red Evening Gazette, likening Mandelstam to a house guest who steals a fur coat from a hangar.
Mandelstam struck back, both at Gornfeld and the “trashy” translation industry, in his book The Fourth Prose, calling Gornfeld a sickly version of Georges Charles de Heeckeren d’Anthès, the killer of his fellow poet, Pushkin.
posted by johngoren at 11:02 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Sir Vidia's Shadow by Paul Theroux is a classic of the genre.
posted by Morpeth at 3:31 PM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Morpeth at 3:31 PM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
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Here's the famous New York Times article on the Omegaverse copyright lawsuit. (Previously.)
Here's the Guardian article on racism within the Romance Writers of America. (Previously.)
It's also worth looking into #CopyPasteCris. (Previously.)
posted by spiderbeforesunset at 11:36 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]