The Secret Lives of Authors: Literary gossip

What does it mean to know a lot about writers’ personal lives? That I am a literary snoop?  Why is it that I can remember that Jean Korelitz Hanff is married to poet Paul Muldoon, that the mother of  YA author Margo Rabb died at a young age of cancer, that Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are married and have four young children, that three of the Minot siblings have written novels with differing views of their childhood, that musician Toby Saks is the mother of novelists Mischa and Claire Berlinski, that Tobias lived with his father and brother Geoffrey Wolff with his mother when their parents split, and that novelist Mona Simpson is the sister of Steve Jobs.  Does this assorted accumulation of trivia  mean that I’m really interested in these authors or just plain nosy? Maybe I’m more interested in the writers’ personal lives than their work or maybe I’m very talented.

I do have to admit that my talent is no longer as remarkable as it used to be. The abundance of memoirs, the power of Google and the websites of published writers contribute to a vast amount of information and,  subsequently, my facility.

Believe me, I’m not working at this accumulation of information. These miscellaneous facts, unlike the titles of the authors’ books, just cling to my brain.   ~   Susan F.