Le vrai McSweeney est mort

Timothy McSweeney, l’homme dont le magazine fondé par Dave Eggers porte le nom, est mort à l’âge de 67 ans.

Quand il a donné le nom de Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern à son magazine, Eggers ignorait si cette personne existait vraiment:

When I was about eight, I started getting strange mail addressed to both me and my mother. These were usually notes written on pamphlets and other sorts of mail that required no postage. The messages were confusing, but generally seemed to be written by a man named Timothy McSweeney, who thought he was related to my mother, and who was hoping to visit soon.[...] We didn’t know if he was real—if there was a real person named Timothy—but in any case the name Timothy McSweeney came to hold an aura of mystery. He was an enigma, a man looking for a home, producing writing that was cryptic and full of longing. So many years later, when I was conceiving a name for this literary journal, the name Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern occurred to me. It made sense on many levels. I was able to honor my Irish side of the family and also allude to this mysterious man and the sense of possibility and even wonder he’d brought to our suburban home.

L’histoire complète ici.