novella
Active Member
I remembered having read a definitive account of the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas" (authorship long claimed by Clement C. Moore), and realized that the research was done and reported in this very cool book, "Author Unknown" by Don Foster.
Foster is an expert on investigating and documenting the unique markers of any given author's style. He's investigated questionable Shakespeare authorship of at least on poem, found the author of the novel Primary Colors by Anonymous, and established the author of the Christmas poem as Henry Livingston.
Writers might find extra interest here because you become much more conscious of your own foibles and stylistic tics. Foster has a Holmesian investigative style, establishing likely sources with anecdotal and physical evidence, then going to the forensics and style habits. It's a completely different way to look at writing.
Foster is an expert on investigating and documenting the unique markers of any given author's style. He's investigated questionable Shakespeare authorship of at least on poem, found the author of the novel Primary Colors by Anonymous, and established the author of the Christmas poem as Henry Livingston.
Writers might find extra interest here because you become much more conscious of your own foibles and stylistic tics. Foster has a Holmesian investigative style, establishing likely sources with anecdotal and physical evidence, then going to the forensics and style habits. It's a completely different way to look at writing.