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Posted by Mark Eason on June 02, 1999 at 22:09:21:
In Reply to: Some comments and anecdotes on Shelley's character from people who knew him posted by Laon on May 27, 1999 at 23:21:37:
Laon,
I found another Shelley story, for your store. When Shelley was living at Marlow in 1817, planning to leave England after the Court had taken away his first two children because of his religious and political beliefs, he became aware of the working conditions and poor pay of the lace-makers at Marlow. Thomas Love Pea said: "He went continually amongst this unfortunate population, and to the extent of his ability relieved the most pressing cases of distress. He had a list of pensioners, to whom he made a weekly allowance."
Another Paul Johnson story is that when the Mad Mullah, the Ayahtollah Khomeini, came out with his death threat against writer Salman Rushdie, the Ayahtollah was condemned, rightly, by almost every writer in the world. I have to say "almost" every writer because there were two writers prepared to support the death penalty against one of their own. One was David Cornwall, the espionage-fiction writer who calls himself John le Carre. The other supporter of the Ayahtollah's murderous intolerance was "freedom-loving" Paul Johnson.
If anything you're much too kind to Paul Johnson. If the American Right, especially the Christian Right, knew what he was really like they'd drop him like a hot brick.
Mark Eon