samizdat

I've decided to sell a few stories on my website. I was looking again at a story that had this line:

When I was at school my teachers used to get mad at me because I never did any work, & later the Fossil used to throw up his hands in horror because I’d never read Racine or Balzac or anyone like that, he’d start talking about the musician as homme cultivé – I used to say to him, If you would like me to compose an opera based on the Phèdre of M. Racine I shall be happy to examine the work in question, otherwise I have not the slightest desire to read this, I have no doubt, excellent play.

Harper's did not take to the story -- but then, I never read the fiction in Harper's. At any rate, the stories are available here.