Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman's name out of a satire then wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to a writer--and if so, why? Bennett Cerf, publisher/co-founder of Random House Even at the worst of times, when nothing goes right, when the prose is clumsy and the ideas feel stale,... read more
