Knowing of

M. Bloch senior, dropper of names:

But the fact was that the only famous people whom M. Bloch knew were those he knew of, people whom, “without being acquainted with them,” he had seen in the distance at the theater or about town.

Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, trans. James Grieve (New York: Penguin, 2002).

Skip James, not so much:

He was the opposite of the blues name-dropper, when asked about the fabled Mississippi bluesmen Rube Lacy and Kid Bailey (both of whom he had met), he would say “I know of  Rube Lacy,” or “I know of  Kid Bailey,” and fail to elaborate.

Stephen Calt, I’d Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues (New York: Da Capo, 1994).

Related reading
All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard) : Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James