ABSTRACT
In one of the stories in his book The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907), Arnold Bennett tells of the death of the fictional painter Simon Fugue. Fugue, a son of the Potteries in North Staffordshire, was a rare representative of that region within the high arts. However, the narrator in Bennett’s story is flabbergasted to find a poster for a local evening newspaper announcing the signing of a new centre-forward to the local soccer team, while making no mention of Fugue’s passing. Upon complaint to a local professional man, the narrator is bluntly told that the death of a painter is unimportant when compared to the arrival of a talented footballer and the attendant hope of the team’s survival within the First Division. Should the team go down,‘ten thousand homes would go into mourning’ (Bennett 1907: 276).
