After writing her sole but masterful short story "The Man in the Boat",
Marissa Thingamajig disappeared into obscurity.

To me, the punctuation is not wrong. The title can be viewed here as a 
noun complement as well as as a nonrestrictive modifier, and one never 
puts a comma between a head and its complement. I get both readings.

The comma after the title is necessary in any case, to set off the 
adverbial phrase which begins the sentence. If we read the title as 
non-restrictive, we use two commas, the second serving a dual purpose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: 
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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