Dueling Austen Scholar Responds

Last week I posted a newslink re: Oxford academic and Austen authority Professor Kathryn Sutherland claims that Claire Harman (award-winning biographer) copied some of her ideas for a new book.

I said this should be interesting, and sure enough, not what I was expecting, but the post received a response from Claire Harman herself, which you can now read on the entry page.

Additionally, in a follow-up e-mail from Harman, she notes: “I was getting intensely frustrated by the end of last week that I couldn’t get ‘my side of the story’ heard at all, but now the Bookseller has quoted part of the same letter I sent you and I’ve been told (by my publisher) that another blog called Book Brunch might put it up in full. Also there’s an interview coming along on The Book Depository and a guest blog on a university site, both of which allude to Prof Sutherland’s horrible attack, and perhaps that’s enough. I have no desire to prolong the row unduly.”

Nor do we, though as an educator, topics own “intellectual ownership” are always of interest to me. Unfortunately, what’s of interest to one person is often the result of many sleepless nights to those living the story. So, for their sake, I hope this dwindles to downright dull, soon.