I loved Roger Rosenblatt's essay in the May 25, 2014 New York Times Book Review, “Please Turn to the Chapter on Obscurity”. His misadventures reminded me of the time when my first YA biography, Maria Mitchell: The Soul of an Astronomer, came out. The local Barnes & Noble invited me for a book signing, and I showed up that special evening with great expectations and lots of pens. As I sat down in the café beside a high stack of Maria Mitchells, an announcement came over the P.A. system: “Attention, shoppers! Beatrice Gormley is now in the café, signing copies of her new book, Memories of a Midwestern Girlhood.” When I left the store forty-five minutes later, the stack of my book (titled Maria Mitchell, if anyone wanted to know) was exactly the same height.
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