A set of general questions for my learned colleagues: suppose someone writes a story about MT, or Hemingway, or other figures surrounding Hemingway, and fictionalizes those events.... one colleague tells me that how one would use historical characters might present some serious legal problems. I am uncertain if this is true about, say, MT, or Hemingway, both of whom have often turned up in fiction and film, but if there have been legal challenges on the MT or EH front, please tell me about them. Especially defamation type litigation. I am primarily thinking of Ezra Pound here. Pound's family is alive and very active in challenging critical representations of him. Mary de Rachewitz (daughter of Pound and Rudge) and her heirs are forceful people (I have heard). The Pound Estate is not so litigious as Stephen Joyce, who has basically halted Joyce scholarship single-handedly. But Pound critics tend to be cautious, even in matters of fact. His "image" and writings will not be public domain for another twenty years or so, so I'm told; and any responsible publisher would have to vet a novel or story with the Pound Estate, before publishing (again, so I'm told). Are public images part of an estate??? Can an author be sued for presenting a fictionalized version of an historical character that is ahistorical, or mythical, or simply imagined?? I guess I'm also thinking of all the recent hit films as well along these lines,: The Hours, Capote, Ray, Walk the Line, etc., etc. Or Dan Brown's feverish imagination about the Vatican: can they sue for defamation? Hal B. Harold K. Bush, Ph.D. Saint Louis University