What goes around comes around... who will remember YOU in 100 years? by Cally Phillips
120 years ago a new writer ‘burst onto the literary scene. He had, of course, spent the obligatory 10+ years honing his craft before his ‘overnight’ success. Birthplace It was 1894. The height of the Victorian era and the cult of celebrity was very similar to what it is today. The only difference was the means of dissemination. Instead of ‘social’ media, the popular media of 1894 was the periodical (if you were middle /upper class) and the monthly, weekly or ‘penny dreadful’ magazines (if you were middle/lower class). The distinction between ‘literature’ and ‘fiction’ was still being thrashed out (in said periodicals and magazines) and genre fiction was pretty much still an ‘out there’ concept. Our man fell foul of this many a time and oft. Especially with his ‘historical fiction’ writing. There was a split between those of the ‘old’ order who still believed that literature was essentially the province of the ‘educated’ and those of the ‘new’ order who be...