Fighting Words: Writers Lambast Other Writers--From Aristotle to Anne Rice

by James Charlton, Tullio Pericoli (Illustrator)

Illustrations by Tullio Pericoli. A lively collection of classic zingers from the mouths and pens of authors. "Who's better at being nasty than writers on other writers?"--The New York Times Magazine. A BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB and WRITER'S DIGEST BOOK CLUB selection. Illustrations by Tullio Pericoli

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Humor, Writing

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 1994

Reviews

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Proof, in case any was needed, that authors are masters of the witty-but-cruel zinger when it comes to describing other authors, although I felt the introduction's statements were rather unfair. All authors don't hate each other, nor are they constantly jealous of every other author's success. The quotes are cherry-picked and quite random, and while mildly entertaining, aren't the sort of thing you'd really want to read cover-to-cover. Worth a browse if you have a copy handy, but it's not going to change your life.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't know all the authors referenced to but still a good laugh. Plus I like the word lambast. It is in the title.

[Stasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are just great. 🤣

[W · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are not many examples of actually stinging barbs, which is quite a surprise. The book is such a good idea because you expect from it the finest and most poisonous darts in human history.

'Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the.' - Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman

But the book has been collected with a warm love for writers and writing, and it's short. It includes a couple of very funny comments. And here they are.

Arnold Bennett on Virginia Woolf: 'Of all the honours that fell upon Virginia's head, none, I think, pleased her more than the Evening Standard Award for the Tallest Woman Writer of 1927, an award she took by a neck from Elizabeth Bowen. And rightly, I think, for she was in a very real sense the tallest writer I have ever known. Which is not to say that her stories were tall. They were not. They were short. But she did stand head and shoulders above her contemporaries and sometimes of course, much more so.'

Frank O'Connor on James Joyce: 'An extraordinarily handsome man! He gave the impression of being a great surgeon, but not a writer at all. And he was a surgeon, he was not a writer. He used to wear white surgeon's coats all the time and that increased the impression and he had this queer, ax-like face with this enormous jaw, the biggest jaw I have ever seen on a human being. I once did a talk on Joyce in which I mentioned that he had the biggest chin I had ever seen on a human being and T. S. Eliot wrote a letter saying that he had often seen chins as big as that on other Irishmen. Well, I didn't know how to reply to that.'

[James S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of mostly mundane comments with ten or twelve memorable or funny lines (Oscar Wilde - “one must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell by Dickens without laughing.”). The main thing I took away from it was a reminder about how stupid and petty most of these seemingly superhuman authors really were. People easily forget that other people are just people; ancestor worship comes so easily to us.

"Another damned thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr Gibbon?"
- The Duke of Gloucester, to Edward Gibbon

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The above information is partial or incorrect because I didn���t pay very close attention to it and don���t have the book with me four days later as I write this. According to the subtitle this is meant to be a sort of reverse ���Logrolling in our Times.��� Rather than Spy���s collection of authors giving one another glorious reviews, the editor of this book picked out foul and mean-tempered comments by authors about other authors. Amusing concept but not vicious enough. Some of the comments were actually complimentary. I had the feeling the editor didn���t search reviews for the comments, but only found them elsewhere, as asides. Too bad. It would be fun to read scathing reviews of works later considered classics.

[Kirsti · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons." --Will Cuppy

"As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks." --Clive James, commenting on Princess Daisy by Judith Krantz

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understood the premise of this book -- but didn't particularly like reading all negativity the authors shared about one another. It's hard to separate the fact from fiction in their observations.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun.

[Zeno Izen · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the smartest people ever making cutting remarks about their colleagues. Good book for the bathroom book shelf.

[Steve Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting how catty and ruthless writers can be with each other.

[LInda L · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO many good quotes by so many writers -- some terrific, some not so much.