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  • Published: 3 November 2014
  • ISBN: 9781612193786
  • Imprint: Melville House
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure



"A wonderful book. At long last someone has invented these failures and given them their due. We owe C. D. Rose an incalculable debt."--Steve Hely, author of How I Became A Famous Novelist

A darkly comic, satirical reference book about writers who never made it into the literary canon

A signal event of literary scholarship, The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure compiles the biographies of history’s most notable cases of a complete lack of literary success. As such, it is the world’s leading authority on the subject.

Compiled in one volume by C. D. Rose, a well-educated person universally acknowledged in parts of England as the world’s pre-eminent expert on inexpert writers, the book culls its information from lost or otherwise ignored archives scattered around the globe, as well as the occasional dustbin.

The dictionary amounts to a monumental accomplishment: the definitive appreciation of history’s least accomplished writers. Thus immortalized beyond deserving and rescued from hard-earned obscurity, the authors presented in this historic volume comprise a who’s who of the talentless and deluded, their stories timeless litanies of abject psychosis, misapplication, and delinquency.

It is, in short, a treasure.

  • Published: 3 November 2014
  • ISBN: 9781612193786
  • Imprint: Melville House
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

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Praise for The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure

"A funny look at literary legends who, for one reason or another, managed to fall into oblivion (or fail to get noticed in the first place). From authors leaving masterpieces on trains, to those who compulsively--and literally--eat their words, this book will get you thinking about losses to literature that we'll never get to hear about. Just don't eat this book, please. Or, if you must, buy another copy afterwards... and restrain yourself from eating that one, too."--Jen Campbell, author of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops and The Bookshop Book