Okay, since this biographer was the one who informed us on the Madame Denis 50 - 53 letters and thus is up to date with the recent research, I'm assuming he'd know.
I don't trust him quite that much, but it is a definite mark against Zinsser having any source at all.
Also, something I ran across today: props to MacDonogh, 1999, for saying that "recent research has cast some doubt on the [orange peel] episode", though he gives you absolutely no indication who or why, and it's very easy to miss.
I'm starting to think his scholarship is very uneven: sometimes better than you'd expect, sometimes worse.
Re: Addenda re: Madame Denis in all three books and Voltaire's backstory in Zinsser
I don't trust him quite that much, but it is a definite mark against Zinsser having any source at all.
Also, something I ran across today: props to MacDonogh, 1999, for saying that "recent research has cast some doubt on the [orange peel] episode", though he gives you absolutely no indication who or why, and it's very easy to miss.
I'm starting to think his scholarship is very uneven: sometimes better than you'd expect, sometimes worse.