To readers in America, Iser is seen as an exception to a lot of his critic contemporaries (like Derrida) who never really "fit in" in American culture. (Source.)

Things got a little sticky when word got out that Iser's BFF, Hans-Robert Jauss, was in the Waffen-SS. Yeah, that means he was a Nazi. (Source.)

Stanley Fish wrote an overly clever and somewhat scathing essay on Iser called "Why No One's Afraid of Wolfgang Iser." It didn't help Iser's reputation much in the US. (Source.)

Apparently, Fish did quite a bit of damage, because no authoritative study has ever been done of Iser—yet he was hugely influential. What's up with that? (Source.)

To understand the Fish-Iser debate in terms of witnesses to a murder, check out this site. (Source.)