Comments on: The Austen question

By: Kelly Wittmann

Kelly Wittmann — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 19:15:15 +0000

Doesn't make me think any less of her. Everyone, and I mean everyone, can benefit from an editor. Even some of the greats could have used a firmer editorial hand (Thomas Wolfe comes to mind).

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:50:04 +0000

Isn't an editor's job to help a manuscript be the best it can be? I guess I just don't see the issue. So she had a good editor. Her writing is still incredible, even if she is just human.

It's actually kind of comforting to know that even Jane Austen needed an editor.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:31:38 +0000

This reminds me of the recent buzz about Raymond Carver and the controversy about how deeply Gordon Lish edited his work.

By: Sherri

Sherri — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:22:23 +0000

F. Scott Fitzgerald also had a very involved editor, but nobody seems to care. Why should Austen be any different?

By: Amy Tripp

Amy Tripp — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:17:25 +0000

I love Austen's work and, for me, it doesn't dim at all in light of this information. A thoughtful editor can do even the best writer a world of good,

By: TLH

TLH — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 01:01:52 +0000

I completely agree with what Kristin said. We put every classic author on the pedestal of canon and they become super heroes. When I was in high school I imagined them being written in some lofty window of a mansion tucked away in the hills of England. Occasionally the author looks longingly out over the moors, then returns to another masterpiece. And surely it was printed word-for-word, just like that.

But it didn't happen that way. It never does. This is just confirmation that she was, in fact, human, and went through the same trials we're all struggling through right now! She just found a really good editor.

~Tara

By: Miss Sharp

Miss Sharp — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:54:33 +0000

Hmmm…now I'm wondering if Charlotte Bronte has any skeletons in her literary closet…nah, couldn't be! lol

By: ramblinbess

ramblinbess — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:44:57 +0000

Interesting…. I'm a great lover of Jane Austen too. Initially, it makes her seem less the literary genius, but then all writers seem to be part of communities that inform their works in pretty significant ways, whether our culture likes to admit it or not.

By: Jan Markley

Jan Markley — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:47:13 +0000

Interesting discovery! Thanks for the link!

By: Kristin Laughtin

Kristin Laughtin — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:19:44 +0000

I think it makes her human. As writers, I think we sometimes get this notion that the classics were all penned effortlessly by their authors, who didn't suffer any of the same issues with creativity or spelling or grammar or craft to which we might be prone. I'm relieved she's not perfect and that her first drafts didn't come out without flaws.