Pagan’s Head, from Pop-Fiction to Pop-Biography

The Times has a nearly glow­ing review of Pagan Kennedy’s new book, a his­tor­i­cal biog­ra­phy of the African-​American mis­sion­ary William Henry Shep­pard. Kennedy used to write this silly ‘zine’ called Pagan’s Head in the 80s, from a crappy little house on Far­ring­ton Street, in my neigh­bor­hood. 666 and I swapped books by Pagan Kennedy, and I always found her writ­ing quirky and fun. I can’t believe she’s get­ting good reviews for writ­ing some­thing more academic…