No, I wrote Spartacus!
Aug. 31st, 2025 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe had not seen J. since we parted at Pitmedden, so there was plenty of catching up to do when she called in this afternoon.
On her way south, she had visited the Grassic Gibbon Centre for tea and a scone. Inevitably, she had also bought some books. "Did you know," she said, "that he wrote Spartacus?"
I thought Howard Fast wrote Spartacus, and said so.
Eventually we got this sorted out. The film Spartacus was indeed [Edited for clarity: based on a novel] written by Howard Fast, but Grassic Gibbon's version was published twenty years earlier (under his real name, James Leslie Mitchell). The National Library of Scotland's 'Curator's Choice' makes sense of this (and offers a link to the text).
You learn something every day.
On her way south, she had visited the Grassic Gibbon Centre for tea and a scone. Inevitably, she had also bought some books. "Did you know," she said, "that he wrote Spartacus?"
I thought Howard Fast wrote Spartacus, and said so.
Eventually we got this sorted out. The film Spartacus was indeed [Edited for clarity: based on a novel] written by Howard Fast, but Grassic Gibbon's version was published twenty years earlier (under his real name, James Leslie Mitchell). The National Library of Scotland's 'Curator's Choice' makes sense of this (and offers a link to the text).
You learn something every day.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-31 08:13 pm (UTC)And my first answer was, "I thought Dalton Trumbo wrote Spartacus!" I did not know about the 1933 novel, so thank you for passing the information on.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-01 09:48 am (UTC)All thanks to J: but if you didn't know it, I feel less ignorant!
no subject
Date: 2025-09-01 07:29 pm (UTC)A classical novel I had no idea about!