Wombat

On the sofa and onthe piano is arranged a collection of small stuffed animals, belonging to [Harold] Bloom: a penguin, Percival; an owl, Wordsworth; a donkey, Eeyore; a gorilla, Gorilla Garilla; a duck-billed platypus, Oscar; and a wombat, MacGregor. The wombat is named for a real wombat owned by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which Rossetti used to bring over to William Morris's house. Morris, being fond of animals, would play with MacGregor while Rossetti slipped upstairs and played with Mrs. Morris.

-Larissa MacFarquhar

"The Prophet of Decline"

New Yorker 9/30/2002