Check the acknowledgments in any decently researched biography and you will see a litany of thanks to various librarians and archivists for their assistance in helping the author find resources about the subject of the biography.

Libraries and archives are vital for any serious biographical research (or serious research, period.)

Here’s info from the NY Times.

This is an excellent analysis.

IIRC, these critical editions were published in part because of recurring questions about Anne’s authorship specifically from Holocaust deniers. Again, if memory serves, there is a big section describing the independent analysis of the paper, ink and the cloth cover of the diary to prove that they were manufactured in the correct timeframe, graphological analysis of Anne’s handwriting etc.

It was interesting to see the “raw” entries, Anne’s revision of them in view of publishing them after the war, and the further polishing and editing done by her father. He cut some things he thought were too personal and toned down some of Anne’s snarky commentary.

To me there has never been any question of her authorship. But the edition that everyone reads does sound quite polished for a girl in her early teens, intelligent and talented though Anne was. That’s because what’s being read is not a verbatim transcription of her original diary entries. The critical edition shows you Anne’s unpolished diary entries, the changes Anne made in her revision, and what her father changed later. It’s quite interesting from a literary history standpoint, but for a casual reader it’s probably overkill.

I went on a major Salinger binge in my teens. At that time I found profundity in his books.

So now I’m old, and I re-read some of his books several years back. His work has not aged well for me.

There can be a rather insufferable twee-ness or too-pure-for-this-world quality in some characters that makes me wonder if Salinger was a major influence on Wes Anderson.

Retired librarian here.

I checked Worldcat, an online database of thousands of library catalogs worldwide.

I searched for this book in audiobook format. I did not specify a language.

There are 3 catalog records of abridged editions in German, and one catalog record of an edition in Polish.

Based on the number of library catalogs in the Worldcat database, I pretty secure in saying that there is not an audio edition of this book in English.

“Discourse on Decadence” is available via JSTOR. Most university libraries and some large public libraries subscribe to the JSTOR database. Or if you don’t have a affiliation with a library that subscribes to JSTOR, there’s an option to purchase the article for $14.00.

When I was an adjunct professor of cataloging in a library and information science program, I asked the students to read an article called “Discards” by Nicholson Baker in the New Yorker. It was about card catalogs and his chagrin at their being replaced by online catalogs. I provided a link for the students.

The article was well written (though it was obvious Nicholson Baker had no idea how labor intensive paper card catalog were to maintain), germane to the course, and an extremely rare example of anyone outside the library profession giving a shit about library catalogs.

I thought we could, you know, have a discussion about it.

One person read the article. (She not surprisingly turned out to be the best and most motivated student in the class.) This was in a graduate-level program.

SMH.