Celebrity Authorship and Afterlives in English and American Literature

This book maps the history of literary celebrity from the early nineteenth century to the present, paying special attention to the authors' crafting of their writerly self as well as the afterlife of their public image. Case studies are John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, Eliza Cook, Herman Melville, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, J.D. Salinger and Zadie Smith.
Literary celebrity is part and parcel of modern literary culture, yet it continues to raise intriguing questions about the nature of authorship, writerly fame and the tension between authorial self-fashioning and public appropriation. This volume provides unique insights into the phenomenon.

Examines key figures from British and American literature, from Salinger to Wilde Has a broad temporal scope, from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century Represents a strong contribution to celebrity studies, a truly interdisciplinary area of research

Autorentext
Gaston Franssen is Assistant Professor of Literary Culture at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Rick Honings is Assistant Professor of Dutch Studies at Leiden University, Netherlands.
They are the co-editors of Idolizing Authorship: Literary Celebrity and the Construction of Identity, 1800 to Present (2016), a trans-European volume on literary celebrity authors.

Inhalt
Introduction; Gaston Franssen and Rick Honings.- 1. A Friendly Return of the Author: John Keats (1795-1821); Eric Eisner.- 2. Hero of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849); Evert Jan van Leeuwen.- 3. Victorian Iconoclast: Eliza Cook (1818-1889); Alexis Easley.- 4. The Daguerreotype Devil: Herman Melville (1819-1891); Kevin J. Hayes.- 5. The Art of Creating a Great Sensation: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900); Sandra Mayer.- 6. Production and Reproduction: Gertrude Stein (1874-1946); Rod Rosenquist.- 7. The Silence of the Celebrity: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010); Gaston Franssen.- 8. Public and Private Posture: Zadie Smith (1975); Odile Heynders.- Bibliography.- Index.-