been reading: Once Again to Zelda by Marlene Wagman-Geller

This was another gift from JLD & HFD. I'd heard of this book and had wanted to read it at some point, so I was delighted that they happened to buy it for me for Christmas.

In the book, Wagman-Geller shares the stories behind the dedications of various works of literature. For example, the book takes its title from the dedication in The Great Gatsby, in which Fitzgerald recognizes his wife, Zelda. Most people who have studied Fitzgerald know that the life he shared with his wife was fascinating, exuberant, and tragic, much like the couples who populate his writing.

But I was not familiar with most of the tales revealed in this book. Interestingly, nearly all of them involve tragedy. Surely Wagman-Geller chose to relate the most interesting stories, but the commonality of personal suffering among the writers was still rather surprising.

The other common component did not surprise me, however. Dedication. On the part of the writer, of course, but also on the part of the writer's partner. In many, many cases, a writer's wife would work full-time to support the family while he stayed home to write. This was a leap of faith, considering there was no certainty that he could write or that even if he could, he would ever profit from it. That kind of believing in and supporting someone is admirable, and certainly worthy of being immortalized in the dedication of a classic work of literature.

Lots of interesting tidbits in this book. Like the curious circumstances surrounding Lewis Carroll's relationship with a little girl named Alice, for whom he names his Adventures in Wonderland. Or that Mark Twain had many cats, whom he carried on his shoulders and named things like Lazy, Pestilence, Famine, Satan, and Sin. Actually, I was surprised by much of what I read about Mark Twain. I've always thought him a gruff, sharp-witted, intimidating man. Which he very well may have been, but the things I learned in this book altered my perception a bit. Of him and many others.

I will say that Wagman-Geller cannot resist a cheesewad ending and she wraps up each essay in a truly unforgivable eyeroll-provoking fashion. But I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I will never again jump into a novel without reading, and wondering about, the dedication.