Anne Fadiman

thumb|Anne Fadiman (2010) Anne Fadiman (born August 7, 1953) is an American essayist and reporter. Quotes Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader (1998) All page numbers from the first paperback edition, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 978-0-374-52722-8, in 2000, 14th printing Over time, my crush on Balder the Beautiful was converted into a crush on Ross, Franklin, Nares, Shackleton, Oates, and Scott.I should mention that all of the above explorers were unqualified failures. Not coincidentally, they were also all British. Americans admire success. Englishmen admire heroic failure. Chapter 3, “My Odd Shelf” (p. 24) These men may have been incompetent bunglers, but, by God, they were gentlemen. Chapter 3, “My Odd Shelf” (p. 25) I hasten to mention that I have never actually solicited a catalogue. Although it is tempting to conclude that our mailbox hatches them by spontaneous generation, I know they are really the offspring of promiscuous mailing lists, which copulate in secret and for money. One of the pleasures, or horrors, of the direct-mail business is that you never know to whom your name will be pandered. My friend Ross Baughman, a photographer who once accompanied a group of American mercenaries to Nicaragua, inquired before the trip about a mail-order night-vision scope that would allow him to take pictures during midnight commando raids without using a flash. Ever since, he has been deluge with catalogs for pamphlets on how to make rifle silencers out of old car mufflers and napalm out of laundry detergent. Chapter 14, “The Catalogical Imperative” (p. 114) External links Category:Women academics from the United States Category:Critics from the United States Category:Essayists from the United States Category:Women authors from the United States Category:Journalists from New York City Category:Editors from the United States Category:Educators from the United States Category:1953 births Category:Living people