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Not long ago I heard Ann Patchett speak (this was at a conference), and she distributed to her audience a copy of Bel Canto as well as a collection of Eudora Welty's short stories. While she talked about her own novel, she also talked a good deal about Welty, mostly concerning the idea that the success of new writers can result in previous writers and (what she thinks of as) better writers being read less, their books disappearing from the shelves in stores and from the classrooms as well. She was not trying to be humble or admirable but was stating this as an issue (this was a teacher's conference). This addresses the problem we face in the classroom concerning how much of the canon we teach and how many new authors we teach, for in a sense, as teachers, we do make the canon of the future. Here on enotes we seem to find some new works but mostly the familiar works being taught--in fact, the same come up again and again. Comments?