Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mark J. Dworkin


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. There's three basic themes represented (in more or less equal weights) in the discussion: 1) he's not notable, 2) yes he is, and 3) he's not notable but his book is, and this is more about the book than the person. So, I'm going to call this No Consensus, but I'll also suggest that perhaps a good way forward would be to rename and rework this to be about the book (and leave a redirect behind).  After somebody has done that rewrite, if people still feel it's not meeting WP:GNG and/or WP:BOOKCRIT, no prejudice against bringing it back here for another look. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:30, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

Mark J. Dworkin

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Nothing in the article to show how this author is notable. Worldcat doesn't appear to substantiate a claim for notability either. Although was de-prodded with the rationale that Worldcat did.  Onel 5969  TT me 02:03, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

"Dworkin considers these questions as he uncovers the story behind Burns's mythmaking works. A long-overdue biography of a writer who shaped our idea of Western history, American Mythmaker documents in fascinating detail the fashioning of some of the greatest American legends"

American Mythmaker: Walter Noble Burns and the Legends at books.google.com User:Wamills —Preceding undated comment added 02:29, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete After a Google search, I see no evidence that Dworkin  is notable. However,  his biography of Walter Noble Burns, published by the University of Oklahoma Press,  is certainly a good source for expanding that article.  Cullen328   Let's discuss it  03:04, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep “American Mythmaker is a book for the ages, an important and much-needed roadmap to that place where, because of Walter Noble Burns, western history and storytelling met in an indelible way. It’s a tribute to author and historian Mark J. Dworkin that we learn how and why the legends we love to believe were crafted, without our losing any sense of their addictive frontier magic.”—Jeff Guinn, author of The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral—And How It Changed the American West User:Wamills


 * Wikipedia keeps or deletes articles based on the degree to which the person is or isn't the subject of reliable source coverage in media. We do not keep articles because of how complimentary a reviewer might have been in a jacket blurb, or because Google Books provides nominal verification that the book exists. Bearcat (talk) 19:12, 1 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Move (Redirect) - to American Mythmaker and tweak - almost the entire content of the article is about the book, which I agree seems notable. I can't find anything about the author or his life except this short paid obituary.  —Мандичка YO 😜 04:26, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:42, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:42, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:42, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Ontario-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:42, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Delete as simply not enough here, the WorldCat collections are simply too trivial. SwisterTwister   talk  00:00, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete. While the "references" that have been provided certainly verify that the book exists, they do not count as reliable source coverage about him for the purposes of passing WP:AUTHOR or WP:GNG. Notability is not synonymous with merely existing — a writer gets an article when real media are writing about him, not just because his book happens to have a primary source sales profile on an online bookstore or an entry in WorldCat. Bearcat (talk) 19:12, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Move (Redirect) - to American Mythmaker as suggested above and edit. The reviews satisfy WP:BOOKCRIT #1. See, e.g., and . 24.151.10.165 (talk) 17:39, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete. Testimonials and passing mentions aren't enough for WP:GNG or any other kind of notability. —David Eppstein (talk) 00:59, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, st170e talk 12:41, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
 * marginal keep his book American Mythmaker was widely and respectfully reviewed and cited, that and his other work combinr, I think, to produce a sufficient degree of notability as an historian and author, albeit of a period and genre now out of fashion.E.M.Gregory (talk) 19:19, 25 December 2016 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.