2 Reader’s Block and This Is Not a Novel.
Feb 7 ’03
Dear Laura S—
A P.S.: I still regret that inadequate answer to your letter. (Whatever it is, here — age, the rotten weather, my 97 sundry infirmities, etc.) But it does occur to me to add: if you ever do write an essay on my work, don’t hesitate if/when you have any questions — of any sort — textual, biographical, your choice. Be my pleasure, seriously.
Yours again—
David M.
Incidentally, Astoria3 is by chance named in my new ms!4
3 My neighborhood in New York at the time.
4 What would be Vanishing Point.
Mar 18 ’03
Dear Laura S.—
Don’t hate me. I just glanced into my new ms for the first time since giving a copy to my agent — and it’s not Astoria in there, it’s Corona.
Just shows you what us benighted Greenwich Villagers know about exotic foreign territories — alas!
Forgive, eh?
My best—
David
Mar 21 ’03
Dear Laura—
Yes, I remember seeing that piece5—someone, maybe Bill Kennedy,6 sent it to me (I have no computer) — and if I’d run into the guy [who wrote it], even in my mid-70s I would have punched him in the mouth. Gawd, of all the naïve, self-contradictory horseshit, full of misreadings, meaningless conclusions, incorrect facts — even insults — well, never mind. (Though in fact I’d still like to whack him one.)
Re the Newsday article, only on delayed 2nd thoughts do I remember chatting with the columnist Dennis Duggan, but don’t recall ever seeing the piece itself. Maybe looking for it under his name would help you?
Otherwise, again, my best.
Ever—
David
5 While researching his work, I’d tracked down numerous reviews and articles online. I’d asked him, here, about one in particular that I’d found to be sloppily written and insulting.
6 William Kennedy, American novelist.
June 5 ’03
Dear Laura:
Hey, mazel tov on your good news.7 Assuming your taste in men is as acute as it is in books, I’m sure he’s a winner. My very best to you both.
Even in Wisconsin. Hmmm. I’ve a vague feeling I’ve heard that Madison ain’t a bad choice. Be happy out there, eh?
Guy name of Jack Shoemaker, who had been the publisher at North Point, and was at Counterpoint when they did Not a Novel, has started a new outfit called Shoemaker & Hoard, in DC. They will do my new one next winter, maybe Feb.
Meantime, lissen. Sometime last year I had a note from Ann Beattie, in Key West, saying she was reading here at the 92nd St. Y and that there’d be a ticket left in my name. I didn’t get there. A few weeks later I had a dinner date with Kurt Vonnegut and a couple of other chums, and I finked out on that too. But do, as soon as you receive this, scribble me a card with your phone # on same. I will try, try try, to get off my butt and set up a drink or whatever. Honest. (I cannot explain this goddamn reclusiveness, but it’s in the last few books, I’m sure.)
All congratulations and luck to you both, again.
David
7 My good news was my impending marriage, and a planned move (from New York) to Madison, Wisconsin.
Aug 2 ’03
Dear Laura—
I’m sorry, truly. I don’t believe I’ve been any farther out my door than to the local supermarket since my last note. I’ve just not been feeling well — one damnable medical thing or another. In fact I did not even get to my granddaughter’s third birthday party this past weekend, alas.
But I do hope married life goes well. Hell, make that “excitingly.”
Likewise for your upcoming move. (Did you know that Leslie Fiedler’s8 PhD was from Madison?) (Heaven only knows how I know it myself, to tell the truth.)
Please do get in touch when you’re settled in that other universe. And please accept all my deepest good wishes — to you both — for luck, health, happiness, etc. And (trust me on this) stay young!
Yours—
David
8 Leslie Fiedler, noted American literary critic, 1917–2003.
Aug 24 ’03
Dear Laura—
Are you really surrounded by water, as on that card? Gee, surrounded by water. Sort of like…hmmm….Manhattan island?
I take all sorts of advantage of it here, too. Back when my kids were about 5 and 7 (they’re now 38 and 40) I once took them for a ride on the Staten Island Ferry!
It truly does look spectacular. How’dja know?
Stay well, do well, both of you. (See the last two lines, Part III, “The Dry Salvages.”)9
All my very best again—
David
9 “Not fare well, / But fare forward, voyagers.” T.S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages,” The Four Quartets.
Oct 1 ’03
Dear Laura:
Poor innocent child, thinking a man of 117 years of age would remember what T.S. Eliot quote, that long after I’d sent it. Have you not heard of “senior moments”—or weeks — the current euphemism for rampant senility?
Re your job,10 Cavafy, a great poet, worked for the Dept of Public Works in Alexandria for 30 years. (That’s in my new book. I think it’s in my new book.) (Also, that’s the original Alexandria, not the one in Virginia.)
Did I say I was 117? Now that the heat/humidity has finally lifted, I sometimes don’t feel a day over 109.
Have you guys learned all the words to “On Wisconsin” yet, or just the first stanza?11
Hey, again, stay well, etc. Oh, hallelujah — in the context of that last phrase, I just remembered what Eliot quote! So, do so, hear?
Thine—
David
10 A temp job I had on arriving in Wisconsin, doing administrative work (“the clerical equivalent of digging ditches/cleaning sewers,” as I’d told him in a letter on 9/20/03) for the Fitchburg Department of Public Works.
11 “On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin! / Plunge right through that line! / Run the ball clear down the field, / A touchdown sure this time. (U rah rah) / On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin! / Fight on for her fame / Fight! Fellows! — fight, fight, fight! / We’ll win this game.”
Oct 10 ’03
Sorry, Ms. Sims — the Lorine Niedecker stuff is in one of my books.12 I can’t remember which, Not a Novel or Reader’s B—but I guess this means your A is now an A-minus.
Industry, extra after-class hours — and neatness — will help.
12 In the context of his note about Cavafy (and writers with boring jobs), I’d told him he should include a quote about Lorine Niedecker, Wisconsin poet, in a future novel.
Oct 11 ’03
Reader’s Block.
Top page 38.13
Ha.
13 “Lorine Niedecker spent years of her adult life scrubbing floors in a Wisconsin hospital.”
Oct 11 ’03
*No note, but a neatly excised article from the New York Times travel section called “36 Hours in Madison, Wisconsin” that begins, “On an isthmus sandwiched by Lakes Mendota and Monona, Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, is a progressive university town noted for the good life…”