Print this pageMilestone alert! As of today, HiLobrow has assigned one thousand HILO HERO items. Just over 900 of these items have been published since Fred Astaire became the first HiLo Hero back in May 2009. The other almost-100 assigned HiLo Hero items (plus who knows how many scores more the future may bring) will be published in 2013.
HiLobrow’s editor is preparing a book of HiLo Heroes, and he’s asked me — his freelance amanuensis, his Cerberus, and keeper of the official HiLo Heroes spreadsheet — to put together a few posts showcasing interesting, weird, and amusing aspects of the overall collection.
Right off the bat, I’d like to point out that one of the most common first names among HiLo Heroes is… GEORGE. That’s not counting GEORG (Simmel) or GEORGES (Bataille, Darien, Perec, Simenon).
Here they are, twelve HiLo Heroes — and one test case — named George. Click on the images to read the items.
Filmmaker GEORGE A. ROMERO
Humorist GEORGE ADE (at left)
Humorist GEORGE CARLIN
Cartoonist GEORGE HERRIMAN
Country musician GEORGE JONES
Filmmaker GEORGE KUCHAR (at left)
Explorer GEORGE MALLORY
Poet GEORGE OPPEN (at left)
Playwright GEORGE S. KAUFMAN
Author GEORGE V. HIGGINS
Culture critic GEORGE W.S. TROW
Composer GEORGE WALKER
Matthew Battles once provocatively argued that middlebrow filmmaker GEORGE LUCAS deserves recognition as a kind of negative version of the HiLo Hero.
PS: I have it on good authority that future HiLo Heroes named George (and Georges) might include: Orwell, Bernard Shaw, L.K. Morris, Saunders, Steiner, Maciunas, Clooney, MacDonald, Williams, Ripley, Arliss, Clinton, Simenon, Darien, and Franju.
Outstanding to see the words of another Battles here! Keep up the good work. (And is Georges Simenon coming again? I thought he appeared once already.)