Second Chances
a day ago
- Michael Seidenberg, a New York bookseller, championed obscure books and was skeptical of reprint series, calling them 'tombstones' for dying reputations.
- Virago Modern Classics, Vintage Contemporaries, and NYRB Classics transformed book rediscovery through consistent design and quality curation, sparking a continuing era of revived titles.
- Wilfrid Sheed was a versatile critic and novelist known for his urbane, ironic tone, with his best novel 'Office Politics' earning praise as a 'minor masterpiece'.
- Sheed's fiction often hides his personal pain and displaced Catholic faith behind skepticism and cutting wit, limiting his emotional depth despite stylistic brilliance.
- The essay warns of a zero-sum effect in book rediscovery, suggesting that not all revived works deserve lasting attention, as seen with Sheed's limited legacy.