Inspiration for the book came by way of Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place. When Wagman-Geller read the dedication, “To George, for all of the reasons he knows so well,” she had to learn the story behind the story. One juicy detail led to another, and now Wagman-Geller is what she calls a “Dedication Detective.”

In Once Again to Zelda, she reveals how Ayn Rand’s husband shares his Atlas Shrugged dedication with his wife’s lover, and explains the moving tale behind John le Carré’s decision to dedicate The Constant Gardener to “Yvette Pierpaoli who lived and died giving a damn.” Each tale is a wonder of literary insight and a whole lot of fun.

Of particular interest to me were the pieces on Mary Shelley’s dedication of “Frankenstein” to her father, and Oscar Wilde’s dedication of “De Profundis” to Bosie. (I will likely use these as short background pieces for my nineteenth-century literature students next term.) I also enjoyed the Dostoyevsky chapter, while the story behind Dashiell Hammett’s dedication of “The Thin Man” to Lillian Hellman will recall the romance of Cameron’s “Titanic”.

What’s contained in “Zelda” is not newly discovered information about the authors or their muses, but it is unique in that it brings the information out of obscurity, into one pleasurable read.

As for the Millican review, pay very little mind– yes, poor taste usually overcomes good writing, but it’s never the fault of the author. Buy this book. In fact, buy one for yourself, maybe a few for your friends, and perhaps another couple for your family, and have something interesting to talk about this holiday season.

I got this book because I’m a huge lit fan, and I thought it was an intriguing way to look at some great classics.

We all know the classic story of Jane Eyre, but did you know that it’s eerily similar to the life story of Bronte and the man she “Respectfully Inscribed” it to, writer William Thackeray? Or that it essentially ruined the careers of both authors after it set off a firestorm of rumors about the two? Or that Virginia Woolf dedicated her gender-bending novel Orlando to her greatest female friend Vita Sackville-West, with whom she had a fiery affair?

It’s these kind of insights that show that the stories behind these dedications are just as intriguing and complex as the novels themselves. A great gift book for any literature lover!