(#34) The "Posthumous" I Should've

Tonight in my Textual Editing and Criticism class, we were discussing the work of Thomas Wolfe. He was a well-known author back in the earlier part of the 20th century. One of his works, Look Homeward, Angel is considered to be controversial because of how he collaborated with his editor, Maxwell Perkins, to bring the novel into print (changing the novel in many drastic ways).

To better illustrate Wolfe's body of work, our professor drew several circles on the whiteboard. One to represent each of the novels Wolfe wrote while alive and then another circle with two smaller circles with an X in each of them to represent Wolfe's work that was published after he died. I thought this last circle was hilarious because the professor didn't realize what he drew closely resembled.



As he continued talking, I should've . . . calmly walked up to the front of the classroom, gently took the dry erase marker from his hand, completed the picture, and then sat back down in my seat because I'm sure everyone in the class was wanting to do the same thing. Especially since the circle was labeled "Posthumous". How ironic.