Shakespeare in the Age of the Tyrant

Stephen Greenblatt’s new book, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power, is a timely tome. As Greenblatt well knows, we’re living in an age of ruthless strongmen. The world’s recent and lamentable swing to the right is embodied by all-powerful authoritarians. Here’s the cast list: Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela) – presiding over an avoidable domestic catastrophe, a post-apocalyptic hellscape…

Morality clauses for authors: necessity or absurdity?

The #MeToo movement has spread to literature. HarperCollins, one of the biggest fish in the publishing sea, has introduced a morality clause to its contracts. The clause allows cancellation for “conduct [that] evidences a lack of due regard for public conventions and morals”, or if there is a “crime or any other act that will…

Why family and friends won’t buy your book (reflections on an essay by Tom McAllister)

I read a terrific piece by an author called Tom McAllister in The Millions. His third novel had just been reviewed in The New Yorker and The Washington Post, “two articles that I had assumed would create something like buzz around me or my writing.” He goes to do a 7:00 p.m. reading at the…