Anecdotal Evidence: `Books Are People Talking About Other People'

Anecdotal Evidence: `Books Are People Talking About Other People'
Excerpt:
“Somebody Reading,” in which Ricks quotes the wonderful letter Keats wrote to his brother George and sister-in-law Georgiana on Sept. 20, 1819: 

“Writing has this disadvantage of speaking one cannot write a wink, or a nod, or a grin, or a purse of the lips, or a smile law! One cannot put one's finger to one’s nose, or yerk [OED: “a smart blow or stroke”] ye in the ribs, or lay hold of your button in writing ; but in all the most lively and titterly parts of my letter you must not fail to imagine me, as the epic poets say, now here, now there ; now with one foot pointed at the ceiling, now with another ; now with my pen on my ear, now with my elbow in my mouth.”