Leo Braudy, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History (1986)

This is a fine book, which I stopped reading after 50 pages. Why? The book is insightful and illuminating, but it's written by an English professor and relies largely on literary evidence. It didn't provide what I've come to want in my books - evidence about the world and theory, ideally, evolutionary theory, as the framework. I may come back to it, though. Stay tuned.