Misplaced Pages

#610389

63-459: Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks , adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies ( / ˈ m ɪ ŋ ɪ z / ). After the success of The Wasp Factory (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas , appeared in 1987, marking

126-624: A Lexus RX 400h hybrid – later replaced by a diesel Toyota Yaris , and said in future he would fly only in emergencies. In April 2012 Banks became the "Acting Honorary Non-Executive Figurehead President Elect pro tem (trainee)" of the Science Fiction Book Club based in London. The title was his creation and on 3 October 2012 Banks accepted a T-shirt inscribed with it. From 2006 Banks lived in North Queensferry on

189-801: A book a day – is absurd, as is the idea that this is any way of honouring a writer." In an interview, John Updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction' has sprung up recently to torment people like me who just set out to write books, and if anybody wanted to read them, terrific, the more the merrier ... I'm a genre writer of a sort. I write literary fiction, which is like spy fiction or chick lit." Likewise, on The Charlie Rose Show , Updike argued that this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, so he does not really like it. He suggested that all his works are literary, simply because "they are written in words." James Gunn noted that genre fans and critics criticize mainstream as mundane, with

252-578: A complete collection of her works. The books of Rosie M. Banks make "very light, attractive reading", according to Jeeves, and he later says that the scene in Only a Factory Girl in which "Lord Claude takes the girl in his arms" (as described by Bertie Wooster) is one of his aunt's favourite passages. Other fans of her works include Bingo's uncle , Madeline Bassett , and American author Kirk Rockaway (in " Stylish Stouts "). However, not everyone enjoys her books. Bertie Wooster describes her writing as "some of

315-635: A distinction between the mainstream and the SF, Banks suggested returning the 'M' to his name, which was then used in all of his science fiction works. By his death in June 2013, Banks had published 26 novels. A 27th novel The Quarry was published posthumously. His final work, a poetry collection, appeared in February 2015. In an interview in January 2013, he also mentioned he had the plot idea for another novel in

378-725: A father who was an officer in the Admiralty . An only child, he lived in North Queensferry until the age of nine, near the naval dockyards in Rosyth , where his father was based. The family then moved to Gourock due to his father's work. When someone introduced him to science fiction by giving him Kemlo and the Zones of Silence by Reginald Alec Martin , he continued reading the series, which encouraged him to write science fiction himself. After attending Gourock and Greenock High Schools, Banks studied English , philosophy , and psychology at

441-454: A landscape artbook of The Culture: The Drawings and a companion volume containing notes, excerpts and new text from Ken MacLeod . The Culture: The Drawings was released on 7 November 2023, while the still-untitled companion volume was scheduled for late 2024. Banks wrote in various categories, but enjoyed science fiction most. In September 2012 Banks became a Guest of Honour at the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, Loncon 3 . Banks

504-658: A letter to The Guardian newspaper, Banks said he had instructed his agent to turn down any further book translation deals with Israeli publishers: Appeals to reason, international law, U. N. resolutions and simple human decency mean – it is now obvious – nothing to Israel... I would urge all writers, artists and others in the creative arts, as well as those academics engaging in joint educational projects with Israeli institutions, to consider doing everything they can to convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation, preferably by simply having nothing more to do with this outlaw state. An extract from Banks's contribution to

567-532: A list by an academic such as Harold Bloom ' or be the official reading list of an institution of higher learning. Robert M. Hutchins in his 1952 preface to the Great Books of the Western World declared: Ben Bova , remarking on the distinction between genre and non-genre works, argued that "the literature of the fantastic was the mainstream of world storytelling from the time writing began until

630-471: A list of great books . In English literary studies, the terms "classic book" and " Western canon " are closely related concepts, but they are not necessarily synonymous. A "canon" refers to a list of books considered to be "essential" and is presented in a variety of ways. It can be published as a collection, such as Great Books of the Western World , Modern Library , or Penguin Classics , or presented as

693-399: A romance novelist and the wife of Bingo Little . The character was possibly inspired by the prolific early twentieth-century romance novelist Ruby M. Ayres . Wodehouse intentionally chose the name "Rosie M. Banks" to be similar to hers, stating in a 1955 letter to his biographer Richard Usborne that he "wanted a name that would give a Ruby M. Ayres suggestion". Another possible influence

SECTION 10

#1732780323611

756-407: A song collection they co-composed as a tribute to the fictional band Frozen Gold from Banks's novel Espedair Street . Lloyd also scored for a spoken word and music production of his novel The Bridge , which Banks himself voiced and which featured a cast of 40 musicians, released on CD by Codex Records in 1996. Lloyd recorded Banks for including in the play as a disembodied voice of himself in one of

819-604: A testing technician for the British Steel Corporation , and a costing clerk for a law firm in London's Chancery Lane . Banks took up writing at the age of 11. He completed a first novel, The Hungarian Lift-Jet , at 16 and a second, TTR (also entitled The Tashkent Rambler ) in his first year at Stirling University in 1972. Though he saw himself mainly as a science fiction author, his publishing problems led him to pursue mainstream fiction. His first published novel The Wasp Factory , appeared in 1984, when he

882-403: A whole." In late 2004, Banks joined a group of UK politicians and media figures campaigning to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached after the 2003 invasion of Iraq . In protest, he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street . In a Socialist Review interview, Banks explained that his passport protest occurred after he had "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through

945-559: A year later and they moved to Fife. They were married in Hawaii in 1992, but in 2005, after 15 years of marriage, they separated. In 1998 Banks was in a near-fatal accident when his car rolled off the road. In February 2007, Banks sold his extensive car collection, including a 3.2-litre Porsche Boxster , a Porsche 911 Turbo , a 3.8-litre Jaguar Mark II , a 5-litre BMW M5 and a daily-use diesel Land Rover Defender , whose power he had boosted by about 50 per cent. All these Banks exchanged for

1008-515: Is a brief reference to a line from Rosie M. Banks's A Kiss at Twilight . It is also mentioned in Bachelors Anonymous that her books often feature an impecunious heroine who receives a legacy, and that in one of her early novels, there is a passage in which the hero, Claude Delamere, who thinks his fiancée is deceiving him after seeing her kissing another man, felt "as if a blinding light had flashed upon him" when he found out this man

1071-440: Is actually her brother from Australia. Rosie M. Banks is featured in: Rosie M. Banks is mentioned in: Although the name of Ms. Banks is attributed to a fictional novelist, there have been uses of this name to sell romance novels in the past. The most notable, Navy Nurse , published in 1960, is attributed to novelist Rosie M. Banks. The author, one-time Saturday Evening Post editor Alan R. Jackson, applied to Wodehouse for

1134-499: Is awarded to fiction in the English language. For both judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and public figures. The Booker judging process and the very concept of a "best book" being chosen by a small number of literary insiders is controversial for many. Author Amit Chaudhuri wrote: "The idea that a 'book of the year' can be assessed annually by a bunch of people – judges who have to read almost

1197-545: Is devoted to her pekingese dogs and owns as many as six at a time. She is the author of works such as: All for Love ; A Red, Red Summer Rose ; Madcap Myrtle ; Only a Factory Girl ; The Courtship of Lord Strathmorlick ; The Woman Who Braved All ; Mervyn Keene, Clubman ; 'Twas Once in May ; By Honour Bound ; and A Kiss at Twilight . She also wrote the Christmas story "Tiny Fingers". Jeeves says that one of his aunts owns

1260-471: Is essentially happy, though she dislikes Bingo's penchant for gambling, and keeps him on a tight budget. The couple have a baby, Algernon "Algy" Aubrey Little, and Rosie manages to get Bingo a job as editor at Wee Tots , a journal for the home and nursery. The infant Algy is put up for membership in the Drones Club, and his godfather is Oofy Prosser . In Wodehouse's novel Bachelors Anonymous , there

1323-625: Is often used as a synonym for literature , in the exclusive sense of writings specifically considered to have considerable artistic merit. Literary fiction is commonly regarded as artistically superior to genre fiction , the latter being a form of commercial fiction written to provide entertainment to a mass audience . Some critics and genre authors have posited significant overlap between literary and commercial fiction, citing major literary figures argued to have employed elements of popular genres, such as science fiction , crime fiction , and romance , to create works of literature. Furthermore,

SECTION 20

#1732780323611

1386-452: Is the central concern. It may have a slower pace than popular fiction. As Terrence Rafferty notes, "Literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way." Other works may be more concerned with style and complexity of the writing: Saricks describes literary fiction as "elegantly written, lyrical, and ... layered". As opposed to genre fiction , literary fiction refers to

1449-470: Is the female novelist Ethel M. Dell (dell/banks = features of countryside scenery), who also has a middle initial of ’M’, a reputation for writing novels of the Rosie M. Banks sort, and is mentioned by name in several Wodehouse stories. Both novelists were exact contemporaries of Wodehouse. Rosie M. Banks is a fictional romance novelist. A tall, lissom girl with soft, soulful brown eyes and a nice figure, she

1512-837: The Culture series , and a short story collection called The State of the Art (1991), which includes some stories set in the same universe. These works focus upon characters that are usually on the margins of the Culture, a post-scarcity anarchist utopia . In the same universe are other civilizations, which the Culture sometimes attempts to influence or "contact", occasionally resulting in conflict. The culture has achieved utopia by handing control of all of their worlds and ships over to sentient artificial intelligences referred to as "Minds". Banks wrote introductions for works by other writers including: Literary fiction Literary fiction

1575-597: The Five Deeps Expedition broke the deepest ocean dive record in the DSV Limiting Factor . The support ship was named DSSV Pressure Drop . Both vessels were named after ships in the Culture series, which is much admired by the explorer Victor Vescovo , also the financial sponsor behind Limiting Factor ' s design and construction. They also have landers named "Flere," "Skaff," and "Closp," named after Culture drones. Iain Banks received

1638-679: The Humanist Society Scotland . As a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill , he supported Scottish independence . In November 2012, Banks backed the campaign group emerging from the Radical Independence Conference held in that month. He opined that the independence movement was marked by cooperation: "Scots just seem to be more communitarian than the consensus expressed by the UK population as

1701-466: The University of Stirling (1972–1975). After graduation, Banks took a succession of jobs that left him free to write in the evenings. These supported his writing throughout his twenties and allowed him to take long breaks between contracts, during which time he travelled through Europe and North America . During this period, he worked as an IBM 'Expediter Analyser' (a kind of procurement clerk),

1764-411: The Culture series, which would most likely have been his next book and was planned for publication in 2014. A project to publish Banks's unseen early drawings, maps and sketches from the Culture universe alongs with his writings and notes on the setting was underway in February 2018. In 2021, the delayed single volume of The Culture: Notes and Drawings was cancelled and replaced with two separate volumes:

1827-634: The Impending Doom ". She reunites with her old school friend Laura Pyke in " Jeeves and the Old School Chum ". It is revealed in that story that Rosie is a Scripture Knowledge prize-winner (like Bertie Wooster), though while the two women are having an argument, Laura Pyke claims that Rosie cheated by sneaking in a list of the Kings of Judah (an accusation later repeated by Gussie Fink-Nottle against Bertie Wooster). Rosie and Bingo's marriage

1890-638: The Little Woman ", in which she marries Bingo Little after meeting him in the Senior Liberal Club . Afterwards, she is known as Mrs. Little in private life, though she continues to write as Rosie M. Banks. At first, she is upset that Bertie Wooster had impersonated her, though they are friends by the next story in which she appears. In " Clustering Round Young Bingo ", she submitted an article for Milady's Boudoir (the women's paper of Dahlia Travers, Bertie's Aunt Dahlia), entitled "How I Keep

1953-597: The Love of My Husband-Baby", which, fortunately for her husband, has not been published. She employed chef extraordinaire Anatole until Aunt Dahlia stole him from her with the help of Jeeves in the same short story, and is thus unlikely to write further for Mrs Travers. However, the Littles did receive an excellent housemaid in a sort of exchange. It is mentioned that she is going on a lecture tour in America in " Jeeves and

Iain Banks - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-534: The Vision of Utopia , the 2016 graphic biography of Louise Michel by Mary M. Talbot and Bryan Talbot , is "Dedicated to the memory of Iain (M) Banks, friend and sorely missed creator of socialist utopias." Empire Games , the seventh book in The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross published in 2017, is dedicated "For Iain M. Banks, who painted a picture of a better way." On 13 May 2019,

2079-681: The beginning of the seventeenth century ", and that older classics have more in common with modern, fantastical genre works than with the genre of literary, mainstream fiction. The Classic Chinese Novels are works of fiction noted for their immense impact on Chinese culture and literature. Literary fiction can be considered an example of " high culture " and contrasted with " popular culture " and " mass culture ". The poet and critic Matthew Arnold defined "culture", in Culture and Anarchy (1869), as "the disinterested endeavour after man's perfection" pursued, obtained, and achieved by effort to "know

2142-519: The best that has been said and thought in the world". Such a literary definition of high culture also includes philosophy . The philosophy of aesthetics proposed high culture as a force for moral and political good. Since 1901 the Nobel Prize in Literature has frequently been awarded to the authors of literary fiction. This annual award is presented to a writer from any country who has, in

2205-474: The cast member's dreams. Lloyd explained his collaboration with Banks on their first versions of Espedair Street (later versions being dated between 2005 and 2013) in a Guardian article prior to the opening of The Curse of Iain Banks : When he [Banks] first played them to me, I think he was worried that they might not be up to scratch (some of them dated back to 1973 and had never been heard). He needn't have worried. They're fantastic. We're slaving away to get

2268-643: The distilleries of Scotland" as his specialist subject. His final interview was with Kirsty Wark , broadcast on BBC2 Scotland as Iain Banks: Raw Spirit 12 June 2013. BBC One Scotland and BBC2 broadcast an adaptation of his novel Stonemouth in June 2015. Banks was involved in the stage production The Curse of Iain Banks , written by Maxton Walker and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 1999. Banks collaborated frequently with its soundtrack composer Gary Lloyd , for instance on

2331-411: The division between commercial and literary fiction, such as the literary romance of Jane Austen or the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood . Slipstream genre is sometimes located between the genre and non-genre fictions. Literary fiction may involve a concern with social commentary , political criticism , or reflection on the human condition . This contrasts with genre fiction where plot

2394-407: The field of literature , produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction. Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The International Booker Prize is a similar British award given for outstanding literary fiction translated into English. This complements the earlier Booker Prize , which

2457-521: The first two groups seriously". According to Gunn, the field of literary fiction in the United States is significantly framed by fiction of the early 20th century and classic canon made from works of authors such as Virginia Woolf , James Joyce or Henry James (all of European descent). Literary fiction includes classic books : that is works in any discipline that have been accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy. This includes being listed in

2520-579: The following literary awards and nominations: Banks's non-SF work comprises fourteen novels and one non-fiction book. Many of his novels contain elements of autobiography, and feature various locations in his native Scotland. Raw Spirit (subtitled In Search of the Perfect Dram ) is a travel book of Banks's visits to the distilleries of Scotland in search of the finest whisky, including his musings on other subjects such as cars and politics. Banks wrote thirteen SF novels, nine of which were part of

2583-530: The gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." Banks relayed his concerns about the Iraq invasion in his book Raw Spirit and through the protagonist Alban McGill in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale , who confronts another character with arguments of a similar kind. In 2010, Banks called for a cultural and educational boycott of Israel after the Gaza flotilla raid incident. In

Iain Banks - Misplaced Pages Continue

2646-580: The latter, works seen as "art". He also noted that there is a contradiction between these, as "high sales figures are generally taken to mean the author has sold out " and left the literary mainstream. He further defined the literary mainstream as "dominated by the academic-literary community—university professors of literature; high-powered critics for prestige publications such as the New York Times Book Review , The New York Review of Books , and The New Yorker : and writers who take

2709-507: The main belongs to SF and Fantasy, eighteen of the top twenty highest grossing movies of all time are SFF, [and] everybody recognises SFF icons and memes '". Critics and readers of mainstream fiction have been accused of " snobbery " when it comes to their dislike of genre fiction. Rosie M. Banks Rosie M. Banks is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Drones Club stories of British author P. G. Wodehouse , being

2772-470: The middle name and submitted The Wasp Factory for publication as "Iain M. Banks". Banks's editor inquired about the possibility of omitting the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy" and the potential existed for confusion with Rosie M. Banks , a romantic novelist in the Jeeves novels by P. G. Wodehouse ; Banks agreed to the omission. After three mainstream novels, Banks's publishers agreed to publish his first science fiction (SF) novel Consider Phlebas . To create

2835-490: The most pronounced and widely-read tripe ever put on the market", and Bertie's Aunt Dahlia does not like reading her works. Rosie's husband Bingo has said that when she gets in front of a dictating machine , she becomes "absolutely maudlin". Bingo nervously changes the subject every time his wife's books are brought up in conversation. Initially mentioned in " Jeeves in the Springtime ", she first appears in " Bingo and

2898-540: The north side of the Firth of Forth , with his girlfriend Adele Hartley, an author and founder of the Dead by Dawn film festival. She and Banks had been friends since the early 1980s, and married on 29 March 2013 after he asked her to "do me the honour of becoming my widow." On 3 April 2013, Banks announced on his website and on one set up by him and some friends that he had been diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer and

2961-430: The progress of science". James E. Gunn wrote, "The SF community uses the word mainstream to describe the fiction that is getting the attention they want; the word is a confession that SF is felt to be a sidestream, a tributary. Gunn also noted the difference between commercial and literary mainstreams, with the former meaning authors whose works are popular – high-selling bestsellers – and

3024-548: The realistic fiction of human character, or more broadly, "all serious prose fiction outside the market genres", the genres being for example science fiction , fantasy , thrillers or Westerns . Jeff Prucher defined mainstream literature as "realistic literature... that does not belong to a marketing category (especially science fiction, fantasy or horror )". In the context of science fiction, Brian Stableford defined literary fiction as "a tradition that had been and remained stubbornly indifferent to, if not proudly ignorant of,

3087-463: The right to use the name; Wodehouse, much amused, gave his permission. True to the genre, the jacket of the book summarises the novel thus: In 2002, a group of Wodehouse fans from the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.wodehouse also voted in large numbers to place the fictional Miss Banks' novel Only a Factory Girl in the list of the top 100 books at Random House . This remained intact for over a week until

3150-538: The sale of rights to his novels was confirmed in the extract and Banks further explained, "I don't buy Israeli-sourced products or food, and my partner and I try to support Palestinian-sourced products wherever possible." Banks met his first wife Annie in London before the 1984 release of his first book. They lived in Faversham in the south of England, then split up in 1988. Banks returned to Edinburgh and dated another woman for two years. Iain and Annie were reconciled

3213-690: The songs to the stage where we can go into the studio and make a demo. Iain bashes out melodies on his state-of-the-art Apple Mac in Edinburgh and sends them down to me in Chester where I put them onto my Atari. Banks's political stance has been termed "left of centre" and in 2002 he endorsed the Scottish Socialist Party . He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of

SECTION 50

#1732780323611

3276-476: The start of the Culture series . His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In April 2013, Banks announced he had inoperable cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year. He died on 9 June 2013. Banks was born in Dunfermline , Fife , to a mother who was a professional ice skater and

3339-408: The study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades. Some categories of literary fiction, such as historical fiction , magic realism , autobiographical novels , or encyclopedic novels , are sometimes termed "genres" without being considered genre fiction. Some authors are also seen as writing literary equivalents or precursors to established genres while still maintaining

3402-538: The tenth Urban Soundtracks . Banks's The State of the Art, adapted for radio by Paul Cornell , was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009 with Nadia Molinari producing and directing. In 1998 Espedair Street was dramatised as a serial for Radio 4, presented by Paul Gambaccini in the style of a Radio 1 documentary. In 2011 Banks featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Saturday Live . Banks reaffirmed his atheism in this appearance, explaining death as an important "part of

3465-484: The term's "deliberate overtones of dullness, worldliness, and uninspired realism". He criticized mainstream fiction as becoming increasingly stagnant and marginalized. This view has been echoed by others; for example, British science fiction/fantasy writer Adam Roberts commented, "It's not that SFF [science fiction and fantasy] is a ghetto inside the glorious city of 'Literary Fiction', but the reverse. 'Literary' novels sell abominably badly, by and large; popular culture in

3528-456: The totality of life" that should be treated realistically instead of feared. Banks appeared on the BBC television programme Question Time , a show that features political discussion. In 2006 he captained a team of writers to victory in a special series of BBC Two 's University Challenge . Banks also won a 2006 edition of BBC One 's Celebrity Mastermind ; the author selected "Malt whisky and

3591-783: The written collection Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement , entitled "Our People", appeared in The Guardian in the wake of the author's cancer revelation. The extract conveys the author's support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign issued by a Palestinian civil society against Israel until the country complies with what it holds are international law and Palestinian rights. This commenced in 2005 and applies lessons from Banks's experience with South Africa's apartheid era. The continuation of Banks's boycott of Israeli publishers for

3654-513: Was named after him shortly after his death. On 23 January 2015, SpaceX 's CEO Elon Musk named two of the firm's autonomous spaceport drone ships Just Read The Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You , after ships in Banks's novel The Player of Games . Another, A Shortfall of Gravitas , began construction in 2018. This refers to the ship Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall , first mentioned in Look to Windward . The Red Virgin and

3717-537: Was reaffirmed by a fellow Scottish author and friend since secondary school Ken MacLeod : his death "left a large gap in the Scottish literary scene as well as the wider English-speaking world." British author Charles Stross wrote, "One of the giants of 20th and 21st century Scottish literature has left the building." Authors, including Neil Gaiman , Ian Rankin , Alastair Reynolds and David Brin also paid tribute in blogs and elsewhere. The asteroid 5099 Iainbanks

3780-649: Was the first of several in the acclaimed Culture series . Banks cited Robert A. Heinlein , Isaac Asimov , Arthur C. Clarke , Brian Aldiss , M. John Harrison and Dan Simmons as influences. The Crow Road , published in 1992, was adapted as a BBC television series. Banks continued to write both science fiction and mainstream. His final novel The Quarry appeared in June 2013, the month of his death. Banks published work under two names. His parents had meant to name him "Iain Menzies Banks", but his father mistakenly registered him as "Iain Banks". Banks still used

3843-533: Was the subject of The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks South Bank Show (1997), a TV documentary that examined his mainstream writing, and was an in-studio guest for the final episode of Marc Riley 's Rocket Science radio show, broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music . An audio version of The Business , set to contemporary music, arranged by Paul Oakenfold , was broadcast in October 1999 on Galaxy Fm as

SECTION 60

#1732780323611

3906-438: Was thirty. After the success of The Wasp Factory , Banks began to write full time. His editor at Macmillan, James Hale, advised him to write a book a year, which he agreed to do. His second novel Walking on Glass followed in 1985, then The Bridge in 1986, and in 1987 Espedair Street , which was later broadcast as a series on BBC Radio 4. His first published science fiction book, Consider Phlebas , emerged in 1987 and

3969-448: Was unlikely to live beyond a year. He stated he would be withdrawing from all public engagements and that The Quarry would be his last novel. The dates of publication of The Quarry were brought forward at Banks's request, to 20 June 2013 in the UK and 25 June 2013 in the US and Canada. He died on 9 June 2013. Banks's publisher called him "an irreplaceable part of the literary world". This

#610389