Thursday, February 5, 2009

Daily Dose


From W. H. Auden's Introductory Essay to De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde

OTHER PEOPLE'S LETTERS

"When we were young, most of us were taught that it is dishonorable to read other people's letters without their consent, and I do not think we should ever, even if we grow up to be literary scholars, forget this early lesson. The mere fact that a man is famous and dead does not entitle us to read, still less to publish, his private correspondence."

From "An Improbable Life"

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