When Books Go Bad

The literary world isn’t all bestsellers; it is also a world of insults, physical blows, snide acknowledgements, and publishing errors. Books are messy, personal things, and writers have been grappling with them in the metaphorical mud for centuries.

Some writers have gone at each other in ink, while other bookish brawls are more literal. It usually ends in regret or death. But books don’t need authors to go bad. They get stolen, misprinted, censored; some are even cursed or bound in …