*[Personal papers of George Wedge]*Database:University of Kansas LibrariesMain
Author:Wedge, George
F.<http://catalog.lib.ku.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SC=Author&SEQ=20090228121723&PID=nZT-3bbxeXgav16B8dUssxr0H2ka&SA=Wedge,+George++F.>
Title:[Personal papers of George Wedge]Linked Resources:Finding
aid<http://ead.diglib.ku.edu/xml/ksrl.ua.wedgegeorge.html>
Publisher:1958-1993.Format:Archival/Manuscript MaterialDescription:12 linear
ft.Indexes:Finding aid available on the Internet.General Notes:Wedge taught
English at the University of Kansas from 1958-1993. This collection consists
of writings, manuscripts, research, and correspondence.Margaret Wedge; gift;
2003.
------------------------------
Location <http://catalog.lib.ku.edu/help/location.htm>:Spencer Library
(University Archives)Call Number<http://catalog.lib.ku.edu/help/callnum.htm>
:PP 408<http://catalog.lib.ku.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SC=CallNumber&SEQ=20090228121723&PID=nZT-3bbxeXgav16B8dUssxr0H2ka&SA=PP+408>
Status <http://catalog.lib.ku.edu/help/status.htm>:Item details not
available
On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 11:11 AM, Crowley, John
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> There is, of course, no shortage of examples of alcoholic characters and
> alcoholic behavior in twentieth-century American literature.  Just look
> into the recent wave of memoirs.  One early success, Mary Karr's THE
> LIAR'S CLUB, is everywhere redolent of her father's whiskey breath.  The
> one I most admire and the one I've taught most often is DRINKING: A LOVE
> STORY by the late Caroline Knapp (who died much too young, but not from
> drinking after all).
>
> This topic reminds me of George Wedge (U of Kansas), one of the true
> founders of Alcohol and Addiction Studies within the "discipline" of
> English.  For many years he compiled a bibliography of drinking/drunken
> writers and their stories.  (I hope it's gone into the Kansas library.)
> Unfortunately, George never published very much of what he knew; but all
> of us owe him an intellectual debt.
>
> Toward the end of his life, George was thinking about the idea that AA
> had possibly distorted the early scholarship in the field (including,
> for instance, mine!): by subtly introducing an unduly righteous tone
> toward unregenerate alcoholic authors as well as the possibly rigid
> notion that sobriety goes with superior literary production, in terms of
> quantity and quality too.  Perhaps a dubious idea; for some writers
> (e.g. Styron) report the virtual necessity of alcohol in their literary
> inspiration.  Simply denial?  Just an excuse?  Maybe not?  That's the
> direction George would have taken.  Any fellow travelers?  (I once tried
> out this approach in a short piece on James Whitcomb Riley, all of whose
> best poetry was written under the influence and none of whose sober
> poetry has ever been considered worth a damn.)
>
> John W. Crowley, U of Alabama
>



-- 
David M. Fahey
Professor of History
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
USA