Great Regulars: No, [Harry] Mount says, "the really

useful thing about Latin is . . . that it will help you to understand Latin, in which some of the most stirring prose and poetry ever was written."

from Frank Wilson: Philadelphia Inquirer: Seize the Latin, or fun with a dead language

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[Norman Mailer's] death "is a huge loss," John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, said in a telephone interview last night.

"No one invented as many forms as he did, from new journalism . . . to a certain kind of war novel which, in some ways, didn't exist before he wrote it and changed the way people would write about war in fiction," Freeman said.

Mr. Mailer did nothing small.

from Frank Wilson, contributor: Michael D. Schaffer: Philadelphia Inquirer: An American literary giant

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