Literary Prizefights

with a bead on a rival, as these takedowns show:

He doesn’t even write literature—he writes ... yak! He doesn’t write novels—he writes journalistic hyperbole! You couldn’t teach that [bleeping]

[bleep] to [bleeping] freshmen in a [bleeping] freshman English class!

John irving on thomas Wolfe

If he would have had fewer pompous musings and

a little sounder education it would have been better maybe.

ernest hemingway on F. scott Fitzgerald

Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the.

mary mccarthy on lillian hellman

That’s not writing. That’s typing.

truman Capote on Jack kerouac

Truman made lying an art form—a minor art form.

gore vidal on truman Capote