Dying public?

[Terrance]

New fiction on Bellow's shelf includes the work of Don
DeLillo, author of the
widely-praised "Underworld." He also praised Dennis
Johnson's new book,
"Resurrection of a Hangman." 

Bellow sees such authors as rare luminaries in today's
market-driven publishing
industry. "Real talent, really talented writers are few and
far between," he said. He
conceded that he doesn't "keep ... close tabs on the
publishing business." 

"But I do know enough about it to be able to tell you that
they're having a very bad
time," he said. 

"There's not much interest in literary fiction anymore, and
I don't know what the
reason can be. It's partly that the corporations have bought
up the publishers, [and]
there's a great many mergers. And I feel that this had been
bad for novelists,
because there was a time when publishing companies were
owned by people with
real literary interests, but that doesn't seem to be the
case anymore," Bellow said. 


http://cwn.uchicago.edu/1998w/02.12/quadlife/bellowspeaks.html

Paul wonders why I am not so gentle with the French. Sorry,
I've not a nationalistic bone in my humorous body, but I am
concerned for the future and a future with out "Shakespeare"
(my quotes) as Huxley taught us long ago (what a smart-alec
graduate seminar student I am, eh? ) is a Brave New World. 

Cynically yours, 

TF