Martha, Martha . . .

This book-writing lady did a bad thing, per U. of N. Carolina-Greensboro prof David A. Cook, in a letter to Times [of London] Literary Supplement 1/4/08:

In 1972, I was preparing to write an essay on [John Cowper] Powys’s Owen Glendower (1940), a two-volume, massively researched novel of the Welsh prince’s revolt against Henry IV, and I learned that a historical novel on the same subject had been published that year [1972] by G. P. Putnams.

This was Martha Rofheart’s Fortune Made His Sword (published in 1973 in the UK as Cry God for Harry). I quickly got my hands on a copy to see if Powys and Rofheart had used the same sources, but what I discovered was page after page of verbatim plagiarism. This was no accident: I counted more than a hundred such instances, extending over about 150 pages in the middle of the novel.

Martha gets a respectful hearing elsewhere however, especially at Randolph-Macon College, where an Honors 141 student observed that her 1976 novel The Alexandrian was “fun to read,” being “told from Cleopatra’s voice” and thus “interesting.”  This novel also “allowed the readers to feel like they were Cleopatra.”

That’s nothing.  Writing Fortune Made His Sword made her feel like John Cowper Powys.  It must have been a wonderful experience.

Tags: , ,

No sale

Barnes & Noble is not stocking the #1 Amazon-rated book by Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, at least in a number of places, east, west, and heartland.  It apparently hits too close to its target.

Haven’t cracked it yet myself but am fascinated by the title, which matches how I feel about so-called liberals.

Tags: , ,

NYT on Fred

More on Fred T., this from the poo-bah of mainstream newspaper journalism:

Fred D. Thompson, 65, is plying the comeback trail in South Carolina, his poll numbers showing a tease of life — he is, statistically speaking, tied for third in recent polls — and his country wit growing more serrated.

It’s nicely done, by one Michael Powell. 

Meanwhile, back at the Chicago Tribune ranch, Fred finally gets a story, by Lisa Anderson:

With his young wife, Jeri, and two small children in tow, the veteran actor, lawyer and former U.S. senator from Tennessee — the candidate billed as the second coming of Ronald Reagan when he entered the race — vehemently emphasized his vision, consistency and clear conservative values to supporters at The Beacon restaurant in Spartanburg on Friday, telling them “That’s why we will win.”

Now really.  “Vehemently”?  He gets vehement?  How about “vigorously”?  Or even “forthrightly.” 

Point is, Chi Trib will be the last to know if Fred has winning touch:

Fred Thompson, the actor and ex-U.S. senator from Tennessee, has yet to justify the advance billing that suggested he is the second coming of Reagan.

is how its Tim Jones said it yesterday.

A more sympathetic observer has him shining “at the last minute,” however.

in the final appearance of Thompson’s South Carolina primary campaign, in a packed room at Greenville’s Embassy Suites hotel. At that appearance, Thompson was so good, so energized, so non-laid-back-Fred, that many of his supporters wondered where the man had been during the campaign.

That’s Byron York of National Review Online.  Hey.  Pay your money and take your choice.

Tags: , , ,

The PB strikes back

The U.S. Episcopal church is going after its breakaway conservatives.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the 2.4-million-member U.S. church, last week slapped Bishop John-David Schofield, leader of California’s 8,000-member Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, with an “inhibition.”

It ordered him as of January 11 to “cease from exercising the gifts of ordination in the ordained ministry of this church” and stop all “episcopal, ministerial and canonical acts.”

That happened because the Fresno, California-based diocese last month seceded, becoming the first Episcopal diocese to do so, and aligned itself with the conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, based in South America.

Schofield told the Episcopal leadership neither he nor the diocese were under their jurisdiction any more.

The civil courts may be courts of last resort.

Tags: ,

Ceremonials, yes

Clergy abuse rears its ugly head in the Bishop Braxton case:

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) An advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse wants Roman Catholics across southern Illinois to earmark or cut back their tithings to the church until complaints that the bishop misspent money is sorted out.

Pastoral groups in the 104,000-member Diocese of Belleville want Bishop Edward Braxton to address claims that he bought ceremonial garments with about $8,000 in donations to a Vatican world outreach fund.

And the Belleville News-Democrat reports Braxton also may have bought a wooden chancery table and chairs with $10,000 from a fund for children and adults.

Braxton isn’t discussing the complaints publicly.

His ilk is usually above all that public discussion.  Bishop Ed, formerly pastor of Oak Park’s St. Catherine & St. Lucy parish, can afford to ignore this, because he has friends in high places.

Tags:

Preacher talk

Obama’s minister has a way with words.  Listing O. as a black savior along with slave-rebellion leader Nat Turner and Martin Luther King, he said there have always been reasons not to follow them.

Some argue that blacks should vote for Clinton “because her husband was good to us,” he continued.

“That’s not true,” he thundered. “He did the same thing to us that he did to Monica Lewinsky.”

Zowie.

Tags: , ,

Pundit quiz

Who said this?

One clue that Romney is our strongest candidate is the fact that Democrats keep viciously attacking him while expressing their deep respect for Mike Huckabee and John McCain.

It’s someone with a keen eye for liberal obfuscation and sharp wit for nailing it.  Here’s your killer tip, next ‘graph:

This point was already extensively covered in Chapter 1 of “How To Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)”: Never take advice from your political enemies.

OK.  It’s the author of that collection of keen, sharp columnary broadsides, Miss Ann Coulter.

Tags:

Not so sure about these guys

The Vatican cardinal speaking in Rome at the Jesuit’s general congregation for electing a new general

told the Jesuits that it is with “sorrow and anxiety” that he has seen even members of religious orders weaken their attachment to the institutional church and their fidelity to its official teaching.

You gotta love bishops, for instance:

 “With sadness and anxiety, I also see a growing distancing from the hierarchy,” he said, emphasizing that St. Ignatius insisted his companions exercise their ministry under a particularly close bond of obedience to the pope.

“The fundamental nucleus of Ignatian spirituality consists in uniting love for God with love for the hierarchical church,” Cardinal Rode said.

You are bothering people:

 “The doctrinal diversity of those who … by vocation and mission are called to announce the kingdom of truth and love, disorients the faithful and leads to a relativism without limits,” he said.

Otherwise, nice job and good luck!

Tags: ,