Bibliofile

The History Men

The literary spat between Pankaj Mishra and British historian Niall Ferguson shows no signs of ending, to the great glee of literary journals across the world—there hasn’t been such a savage fight, as we are repeatedly told by London papers, since Paul Theroux took on V.S. Naipaul. It started with a 5,000-word long review by Mishra of Ferguson’s Civilisation: The West and the Rest in the London Review of Books, followed by an exchange on the letters pages of the literary journal that has kept everyone riveted. The Guardian warned its readers that they might need a dictionary and a degree in history to follow the academic feud, but it seems familiar enough: an author reacting to a bad review. This one is threatening to sue both the reviewer and the magazine because the review allegedly called him a racist.

Serial Sallies

Pankaj Mishra has put himself on the firing line before with his reviews—remember Salman Rushdie, and more recently, Patrick French, who reacted to his review in Outlook of his India: A Portrait by pointing out how the Allahabad boy has climbed to his “present position at the heart of the British establishment, married to the cousin of the Prime Minister, David Cameron”.

Uncorrected Proof

Niall Ferguson got his first bad review while he was still at Oxford. An editor commissioned him to write an essay for a collection. It was the first to be sent in, but was returned for corrections as it wasn’t quite the ticket. His response was terse: “Dear —, F— off. Yours, Niall Ferguson.”