Lord Byron: Still Beloved
To the Editor:
While of course he always writes well, I found myself puzzled by Andrew Holleran’s review-essay about Lord Byron in the September-October issue (“The Broken Dandy”). Puzzling, because he seemed to imply that Byron is an unimportant figure, a mere literary and sexual curiosity. He writes: “Byron is probably not read today in the way he was in the early 1800s.” No, but no popular author of that period is: the readership today is smaller but better qualified. In my lifetime, I’ve known a very large number of poets and prose writers, and all have expressed admiration for and delight in his work—which, apart from the poetry, includes a wonderful journal and many brilliant letters.
This past April, 100 or more people attended a centenary celebration for the great Romantic at Westminster Abbey, a gathering of scholars, writers, and readers, all devoted to the author of Don Juan. It’s unfair to expect Holleran to be aware of The Byron Journal, an international publication brought out by Liverpool University and respected by literary scholars in several countries. Continental Europe had little interest in the other English Romantic poets, but Byron was admired by both Goethe and Pushkin, whose Eugene Onegin would not have been written without the example of Don Juan, from whose general import Pushkin departs, a natural thing for a different genius. In an era when a sex-positive stance and nonbinary sexuality are both widely accepted, Byron qualifies as an unsaintly patron saint and deserves our irreverent veneration as both a major author and a bold challenger to conventional mores.
Alfred Corn, Providence, RI
Bette Midler: Accept No Substitutes
To the Editor:
I love The G&LR and was thrilled to see that my new book On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide (Oxford) was reviewed in the September-October issue. I’ll skip over the fact that Robert Allen Papinchak’s Brief isn’t really a review but instead a laundry list of Midler career highlights. But the accompanying photo credited as “Bette Midler in her ‘Hell in a Handbag’ show, Continental Baths” is not even that of the book’s well-known and highly identifiable subject.
Midler never did a show called “Hell in a Handbag” at the Continental or anywhere else. In fact, the photo is performer Caitlin Jackson playing Midler in a Chicago-area tribute show called “Bette: Live at the Continental Baths” produced by Hell in a Handbag productions back in 2015-16. I know Midler is now considered a legacy artist and may not be so familiar to younger staff members, but it’s hard to believe someone at The G&LR didn’t catch this goof!
Kevin Winkler, New York, NY
