So when "A Man in Full" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) was published in October, some of the literati were ready.
He thinks the assumption that he hasn't got them grew out of his meeting some of the literati last summer when he was wearing sneakers and an old T shirt.
"THERE are some sour and smelly literati these days who are utterly abominable," a retired military officer reportedly told a recent gathering in Beijing.
Father Pete claims that he has never had a bad time in the 20 years that he has visited Elaine's, the famous bar, restaurant and gossip stand at 88th Street and Second Avenue that is favored by the city's literati and some celebrities.
Yes, several minutes later he said to that same moderator, "What are italics?" when asked why he wrote a passage in italics, but it was clear that both at the library and on the page, Mike's story is more moving than any novel written by some jagoff from the literati.
But the tone of his criticism grew more rancorous, especially with the ill-advised publication, in Godey's Lady's Book, of a series of sketches called "The Literati of New York City: Some Honest Opinions at Random Respecting Their Authorial Merits, with Occasional Words of Personality".
Kafka did, however, become friendly with some German-Jewish intellectuals and literati in Prague, and in 1902 he met Max Brod; this minor literary artist became the most intimate and solicitous of Kafka's friends, and eventually he emerged as the promoter, saviour, and interpreter of Kafka's writings and as his most influential biographer.
I did some canvassing to see what the literati made of such claims.
In his column, Joseph Bell explained the word game "Literati" (The Bell Curve: Enjoying some Christmas Day word play," Dec. 30).
But my mother has just done an Open University course on it and prepared my background reading, so this month I am hoping to read it: then I will ascend to some kind of upper echelon of the literati.
