Has anyone heard of C. S. Cooney?

Maru Dubshinki · 10 Aug 2005, 21:52 · from 2005-August.txt.gz

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From: marudubshinki at gmail.com (Maru Dubshinki)
Date: Wed Aug 10 21:52:02 2005
Subject: (urth) Has anyone heard of C. S. Cooney?
In-Reply-To: <42FAC709.4010600 at charter.net>
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	<42FAC709.4010600 at charter.net>
Message-ID: <f5238c305081021527f7d6785 at mail.gmail.com>

On 8/10/05, JWillard <aldenweer at charter.net> wrote:
> Maru Dubshinki wrote:
> 
> >On 8/10/05, Jason Willard <funesmem6 at msn.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>I just got my copy of Starwater Strains and the dedication says the title is
> >>from a poem by C. S. Cooney called "Lady Rosemary."  Rosemary I get, of
> >>course, but is Mr. Wolfe in the habit of making up poets?  I can't find this
> >>poet mentioned in Google or Wikipedia or ABE Books.  (As fabulous as they
> >>are, admittedly limited sources.)  Am I missing something obvious?  Has
> >>Wolfe used this as a pseudonym?
> >>
> >>
> >
> >There is a man of letters by the name of "Seamus Cooney".  Cooney is
> >not a common last name at all, and that fellow has at least one of the
> >right initials.  But he doesn't appear to have authored any poems,
> >rather just edited a lot of poems and letters by such luminaries as
> >Charles Bukowski; there is an Irish principal who likes poetry, but
> >that seems unlikely; and it doesn't appear to be a code of some sort-
> >at least, the most significant anagram is "Once Cosy". Perhaps you
> >could copy the poem, if Wolfe included it (or did he simply mention it
> >in passing?).
> >
> >
> >~Maru
> >Current mood: ?
> >_______________________________________________
> >Urth Mailing List
> >To post, write urth at urth.net
> >Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
> >
> >
> >
> It reads:
> 
> "The title of this book is taken from "Lady Rosemary," a poem by C. S.
> Cooney;  and this book is dedicated to them."
> 
> That's it.  Three possibilities (as far as I can see):  Cooney is an
> obscure poet (and Wolfe does seem to have some obscure things in his
> library); something's misprinted; or someone's doing some leg-pulling.
> Thanks for the feedback!

Well, I gave the Library of Congress  a shot; no joy.
But something rings wrong about that text.  "this book is dedicated to
*them*"?  Is that pronoun correct?  There are three possible referents
for that pronoun: "Starwater Strains" (unacceptable, since that is a
very strange thing to anthromorphize, and I'm not even sure what
starwater strains could be, anyways), Rosemary (well, Wolfe *could* be
a herbal fanatic. It's possible, but improbable), and finally, C. S.
Cooney, in which case the name could well be a pseudonym for a
collective/duo/misc. group of writers, somewhat like Bourbaki is for
mathematicians.

~Maru

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