> >My point was merely, that when you know a lot of personal facts about >an >author it´s easier to say the he/she wrote this or that piece based on > >a certain life-experience... That is not really the case with >Salinger... >We know a few things but next to nothing compared to other authors... > >Abra > CS Lewis is another one of my favorite authors, and he's one of those rare birds that is both an accomplished literary critic AND a successful fiction writer. He's written essays about reading book reviews that speculated on the intersection between Lewis's life and his fiction work--how he let one influence the other. He said, without exception, the book reviewers were wrong. I mean, they NEVER guessed right. He didn't know if he was the rule or the exception, but I thought it was an interesting observation. It's a worthless enterprise, to me, to try to second guess authors in that way. I'd rather just pay close attention to what they wrote :) Jim ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]