Besides the good news about Tony Persiani, there was another bright spot last week: An editor at a major house is interested in both my Smith manuscript and my Pioneers proposal, and both will be heading her way soon.

Speaking of Smith, even though the current version of the manuscript is, in theory, “finished” (and even though I have, in theory, “moved on to other projects”), I read another book about him last week, a brand-new memoir by someone who knew him well. And I’m relieved to say that this new account has made me only more intrigued and enchanted by him, and glad I decided to write about him in the first place.

One interesting thing about the book itself, though, is that the list of suggested reading completely ignores the only full-fledged biography that’s been published about him. This can’t have just been an oversight — the biography came out from a major publisher just a few years ago.

I’ve been aware of some grumblings about that previous book — displeasure among those who admired Smith that the author delved (necessarily) into his personal life and addressed (unnecessarily) a baseless and particularly ugly allegation, which the author ultimately dismissed. I wonder if that explains the biography’s exclusion from the reading recommendations in the memoir, or if there’s more to it than that.