Any writer who has been surprised while marking proofs to find a successful passage that has vanished from memory will recognise the feeling.The attraction of these ideas is that they explain how it is possible for most of us to feel pretty stupid most of the time we write, without necessarily writing stupidly.
The remaining authors at the top of the list — Charles Fosdick, Oliver Optic, Martha Finley, L. T. Meade and others — have vanished from memory.
Long after the former have vanished from memory, Sean Penn's work will undoubtedly leave a legacy that survives.
By the 1950s, it had vanished from Chinese society, leaving just the wisp of a memory for a nation that had once seemed to live for little else.
"Last I heard," David Popenoe wrote, in 1991, "it had vanished from the American scene".
With the rise of "trigger warnings" and the demand that campuses become "safe places" sheltered against intellectual disturbance, it may not be long before the notion that universities exist to promote unfettered inquiry has vanished from living memory.
Norwich, where I live, was cut off, with fallen trees blocking every road out of the city, but as far as I can tell the event has vanished from the local folk memory.
Dre and Sherry have moved there from Detroit, fleeing sad memories of Dre's father's death and seeking the kind of job opportunity that has vanished from the Motor City.
Today, this has "vanished from sight.
The childhood pudginess has vanished from his face.
Steel has vanished from the roster.
