[Vwoolf] Wikipedia v. other sources
Stuart N. Clarke
stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Wed Jan 10 04:35:22 EST 2018
If you know about a particular topic and read a newspaper report that refers
to it, there is nearly always at least one inaccuracy.
It would be naive to think that scholarly (and other) books are free from
errors - mine included. Anyone noticed I can't spell Dante Alighieri?
Julia Stephen has 6 children on p. 144, but 7 on p. 145 (NALBANTIAN,
Suzanne, "Aesthetic Autobiography: From Life to Art in Marcel Proust, James
Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Anais Nin" (NY: St Martin's Press, reprinted 1997
"with alterations"))
Eliot’s "The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism" (1920) was
reviewed by LW, not by VW, pace Friedman 119 n22 (Friedman, Susan, "Virginia
Woolf’s Pedagogical Scenes of Reading: 'The Voyage Out', 'The Common
Reader', and her 'Common Readers'”, "Modern Fiction Studies", 38:1 (Spring
1992), 101–25).
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Reynolds
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 4:47 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: [Vwoolf] New to list: Reading VWoolf's Fry bio
I wanted to introduce myself to the list, as I joined perhaps a week ago. I
know two people on the list—Elaine Pigeon and Ellen Moody—as cyber friends.
Ellen and I and perhaps some others read Hermione Lee’s Woolf bio on the
WomenWritersThroughtheAges list that Ellen moderates not too long ago. Right
now, I am in the midst of Woolf's Fry biography. Having published a
biography myself, on Dietrich Bonhoeffer (an interesting comparison to Woolf
in many ways) I know that factual inaccuracy goes well beyond Wikipedia—much
of what I had to do was unravel fact from myth in my focus on women in
Bonhoeffer’s life. This is not to disparage other biographers, but to note
how, if one's focus is not on a certain topic, it can be easy to accept and
repeat misinformation. I do always warn my students, as I imagine most do,
to be wary of Wikipedia—and yet, like them, I often go it when I am seeking
information and further references. I suppose a hermeneutic of suspicion is
a good working strategy. :)
Diane
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