Contents -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction: The Charismatic Illusion -- The Cultural Value Stock Exchange' -- The Individualization of Authorship -- Part One: Cultural Contexts -- 2. Mark Twain Absurdity: Literature and Publicity in America -- The Emergence of a Star System -- The Author as Commodity -- The Rise of the Massmarket Magazine -- Middlebrow Culture and its Discontents -- 3. The Reign of Hype: The Contemporary Star System -- The Mediagenic Author -- The Trade in Cultural Capital -- 'The New Mediocracy' -- A Promotional Culture -- 4. Disembodied Images: Authors, Authorship and Celebrity -- The Death of the Author? -- Public and Private -- Authors and Their Images -- The Power of Celebrity -- Authors and Reclusiveness -- Part Two: Star Authors -- 5. The Scribe of Suburbia: John Updike -- 'Rancid Advice from my Critical Betters' -- The Nostalgia for Failure -- 'A Mask that Eats into the Face' -- Jobbing Author of the Suburbs -- 6. Reality Shift: Philip Roth -- Celebrity and Scandal -- Hypothetical Selves -- 'Peekaboo Narratives' -- 7. Silence, Exile, Cunning, and So On: Don DeLillo -- Celebrities and Fans -- The Endgame of Reclusiveness -- Authors and the Masses -- DeLillo and the Publicity Machine -- 8. A Star of Bohemia: Kathy Acker -- Mass Culture and the Bohemian -- The Avant-garde and Celebrity -- 'What Matter Who's Speaking?' -- The Body and Identity -- Writing in Fever -- 9. Conclusion: A 'Meet the Author' Culture -- The American Future -- The Pervasiveness of Celebrity -- Notes -- 1 Introduction: The Charismatic Illusion -- 2 Mark Twain Absurdity: Literature and Publicity in America -- 3 The Reign of Hype: The Contemporary Star System -- 4 Disembodied Images: Authors, Authorship and Celebrity -- 5 The Scribe of Suburbia: John Updike -- 6 Reality Shift: Philip Roth -- 7 Silence, Exile, Cunning, and So On: Don DeLillo.

8 A Star of Bohemia: Kathy Acker -- 9 Conclusion: A 'Meet the Author' Culture -- Index.