Pushcart 2026 L: Mark Brazaitis, “One Writer Against Oblivion” from Prime Number Magazine #263

Inevitably I’m asked, “Why devote a paper, much less an entire dissertation, to Plutowsky?” I have a two-part answer, the first of which is my personal connection to Plutowsky via his great niece, my fiancée, Loretta. Professionally I have this response: Plutowsky is one of hundreds of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American authors—indeed, one of tens of thousands of American artists in a variety of fields, including classical music, visual arts, theater, and dance—who in the face of persistent obscurity and consistent lack of financial reward, continued, and continue, to produce works of indisputable merit. The question I’ve sought to answer in my examination of Plutowsky’s life and career could be asked of any artist similarly situated: Why persist? This story is both hilarious, and horribly sad, for the same reason: because it’s true. It’s in the form of a paper, written by one Peter Murray, presented at an academic conference on “The Written Word.” The paper is a literary…