Marmaduke Pickthall is a British novelist who converted to Islam, translated the Quran and wrote profusely about the Arab world. He had an early warm reception in the literary circles of his time, but he dropped from fame, and his work was ignored when the English literary canon was formed in mid-twentieth century. When interest in Pickthall was revived by the end of the twentieth century, it came in a grim context that justified the canonical drop, rather than challenged it. No attempt was made to reinstate the overlooked writer into literary acclaim.