Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
The LC is the type of place where can you have volumes upon volumes of books with not so much as a single page devoted to listing any references. I just have to consider how absurd that it must seem from a scholarly perspective.
|
Ah, but it's living! It's vital!
Says who?
Well, the author, who's his own reviewer and publicist.
And it's proper! It's adequate!
Again, whose judgment?
Again, the author's judgment of his own work.
The parallels between Ambrose and Lee are kind of interesting. Both churned out tome after tome of popular-level work, with quality-control issues, but the publishers didn't care because they were selling copies (in Lee's case he was the publisher). Neither author cared for primary sources, but but realized there was a good living to be had, working from secondary sources, but with fresh titles and glossy book-jackets.
If sales are good it can become a cottage industry: Ambrose's agent was his son. But he paled beside the MOTA, who was author, publisher, reviewer, agent, and publicist. And Ambrose never presumed to write the definitive version of anything - he knew people aren't
that gullible! Are they?