Collegial Notes

If bloggers were eligible for Pulitzer Prizes for journalism ..., I would nominate Brooklyn Professor KC Johnson, who blogs at Cliopatria and Durham-in-Wonderland, for his coverage of the Duke case. No self-respecting journalist would think of writing anything long and evaluative on the Duke case without first checking the"blog of record," Durham-in-Wonderland.

Those of us who have been following Johnson's staggeringly insightful analyses of developments in the case can't wait for his book on the hoax, which I heard will be co-authored with the brilliant Stuart Taylor.

Lindgren isn't the first to suggest the Pulitzer Prize-worthiness of KC's work. See: Michael Gaynor at Renew America, 14 September. But Lindgren heard correctly. For a brief foretaste of the book, see: Stuart Taylor, Jr., and KC Johnson,"A Dirty Game: The Duke ‘rape' case unravels," Opinion Journal, 27 December.

Our colleague, Scott McLemee, has put his old blog, Cogito Ero Zoom, to rest and taken up a gig at Arts Journal. His new space is called Quick Study. Scott's weekly column at Inside Higher Ed, Intellectual Affairs, continues.

Have a look at Nathanael Robinson's new course,"The Long Nineteenth Century." He's posted the syllabus at Rhine River.

Jack Shafer,"The Lies of Ryszard Kapuscinski," Slate, 25 January, explores the"magical realism" of the Polish war correspondent. Patrick T. Reardon,"The Details in ‘The Devil'," Chicago Tribune, 28 January, looks at Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City as a popular example of the" creative nonfiction" that fudges lines between imaginative fiction and historical nonfiction. Thanks to Tim Lacy at History and Education, who has additional thoughts on the subject.

Peter Finn,"The Plot Thickens," Washington Post, 27 January, confirms long-circulating rumors that the Central Intelligence Agency played a crucial role in the publication of a Russian edition of Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago and, working through the Congress for Cultural Freedom, helped him to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. All done, apparently, without Pasternak's knowledge of it. Here, Ivan Tolstoy takes questions his confirmation of the CIA's role.

Finally, A. C. Grayling of Birkbeck College, University of London, showed up yesterday at Cliopatria, only to say that he'd answerBrandon Watson at Siris, if he could, suggesting that the problem was technical. He's been offered space here for the reply, but there's been none. Meanwhile, Watson attempts to clarify Grayling's rhetorical alternatives for him. Maybe the problems aren't merely technical.