Part of the larger body of work

Being the son of an English Literature professor, as well as the proud bearer of a B.A. in that august (but largely unmarketable) subject, I am amazed at the sheer volume of excellent poetry and prose that has been written over the centuries that has been deemed unworthy of study by modern students.

The undergraduate student of English Lit. usually does little more than scratch the surface of this enormous body of writing, and graduate students tend to specialize quite narrowly.  The end result is that a vast sea of writing exists that will rarely if ever see the light of day.

I am please and proud to let you know that as of this week I joined the ranks of writers whose work will probably be largely ignored for generations to come. 

Here... let me explain:

A couple of years ago I wrote a post here on treppenwitz about my experiences at my Israeli barber shop in Beer Sheva.  Shortly thereafter I got an email from an English Lit professor at the University of Houston in Texas.  It turns out he was compiling an anthology called 'The Barber in Modern Jewish Culture' and wanted to know if he could include my essay.

Naturally I said yes... and that was that.

Well, this week I received a handsomely bound book in the mail from Dr. Irving N. Rothman... and sure enough, it was the above mentioned anthology (you can buy it here for only $158).  It is arranged chronologically from an entry dated 1150 B.C.E. through a piece written in 2007. 

There are relatively few modern essays in this genre (mine was the sole representative for 2006), so I feel like I'm in a fairly exclusive club.

BTW, I should point out that any of you who commented on that post are also included in the anthology since he opted to pubilsh the comments on the post as well! 

Granted, it's not like having one's work selected for inclusion in the Norton's Anthology of English Literature.  But seeing one's name in print... even in a tome that may not see wide circulation/interest... is heady stuff indeed.

So this is my way of saying 'Hey dad... I may not have written the great American novel (yet), but being published in a serious anthology ain't bad'.