Apr 8 ’04
Dear Symsy—
Spectacular!29 You can even take the tour,30 up the rickety stairway to the shabby flat where Raskolnikov did in the old pawnbroker lady and her sister with the ax — and even though there never was a Raskolnikov, or an old lady, or her sister (named Lizaveta), they will tell you, that’s the place!
Hey, seriously, I think it’s wonderful, a great break from the Amerikansky routine, an experience to feed off for years — even later, when you’ll think you’ve mostly forgotten it. Lotsa pomes31 too, betcha.
But in the meantime, I demand more and more work on your Markson paper, hear? Every minute, until!
Hey, all cheers, mazel tov, congrats, etc.
Thine—
David
29 His reaction to news that I’d be spending a month in St. Petersburg (Russia) as a participant in the Summer Literary Seminars.
30 The Crime & Punishment Tour.
31 This is not a typo; he explains the spelling in a later letter.
May 13 ’04
Dear Simsy—
Someone just sent me a 90-page densely written Master’s essay on This Is Not a Novel. Someone else, a Lit Seminar MFA final paper on Wittgenstein’s Mistress. Yet one more, a chapter on Going Down, for a book being done in France.
WORK HARDER! (To strive, to seek, to find — etc. Who’m I quoting?32)
I don’t have any idea whatever became of that essay supposedly being written for RCF, by the way. The guy called me with a few questions 15 months ago, but there’s been not a word since. I’ve no idea if it’s been written, scheduled — or for that matter abandoned?
When you get to Russia, I want a postcard with a picture of Raskolnikov and the ax on it!
Hey, as always, take care, stay well, and my best to Corey.
Thine—
David
32 Ulysses, from “Ulysses,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
May 21 ’04
Dear Simsy—
Hey, marvelous — that you’re essentially finished.33 I just called James Joyce to inform him, & he said to tell you “Mazel Tov”—which is Irish for “Zowie.” Seriously, I’m pleased and honored both — and do hope you place it somewhere prestigious.
Meantime, quote me what it says about Catherine the Great’s death34—sort of chapter & verse — and I may rewrite & steal it. (I always fuss over sources.)
Again — cheers & congrats — and thanks.
As always—
David
33 With my essay on Markson’s work.
34 I think this quote about Catherine the Great dying on the toilet came from a Russian travel guide.
May 22 ’04
Dear Simso—
Just this a.m., out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Kate the Great bio on a bookstore shelf — Erickson, was it?35 Anyhow, I skimmed the necessary pages. Forever on, the line in my next book, if I use the line — and if there is a next book — will be known as the Laura Sims Memorial Water Closet Line!
Thine—
D.
35 Great Catherine: The Life of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Carolly Erickson (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995).
July 20 ’04
Dear Simsy—
Forgive the yeller-paper scrawl. Your cheery, enthusiastic — nay, even bubbly letter — deserves better. And sure does indicate you had a smashing time.36 Travel’s good — says he who once had three years in Mexico, and more than a year and a half in Europe, but lately hasn’t been farther away from the Village than Jim Edmonds37 can throw a baseball. (Then again I’ve taken the Weehawken ferry a few times, en route to where my son lives in NJ — right past where Aaron Burr shot that guy on the $10 bill.)
Where was I? About to say thanx for the photos,38 too, making you less than the wraith you’ve been up ’til now. Corey likewise. I do find it Bishop Berkeley-ish39 that you visited the houses where two people (three) who never lived, lived. (I say three because Lizaveta was of course the old panwbroker lady’s sister; though, hmm, there’s RRR’s40 landlady too, no? Tons of people who never lived, lived there.)
A couple of years ago I paused to look at a building on an obscure street not far from here that I’d had in mind, all those decades ago, as the home of my man Chance in Going Down; the gal Fern sees him through a window, goes into the building, raps at an apartment door to her left. All these years (earliest drafts, ca. 1960) she’s gone into a door at her left. Only in 2003 or so do I discover that everything to the left is another building altogether. To get into the apartment I’ve visualized her looking into, she’d have to step around the corner! So much for fictional reality!
Golly, what a profoundly metaphysical moment in the creative history of David M — and nobody knows it but Simsy.
Hey, again, pardon the scrawl. Already more’n I’d anticipated.
I’m delighted that you had such a great time. Pomes that you’ve never given a thought to will be lurking because of it, who knows when?
Thine—
David
P.S. “If there is no God, how can I be a captain, then?” says somebody in The Possessed. If there was no landlady on the floor below, who did Raskolnikov owe the rent on his garret to — and what was the exchange rate on the make-believe roubles?
36 In St. Petersburg.
37 Jim Edmonds, retired center fielder.
38 In one photo, I’m standing next to the door of Raskolnikov’s supposed apartment; another shows the graffiti scrawled on the wall outside the door of the apartment, including the phrase, “Don’t do it, Rodya!” (in French and English).
39 George Berkeley, a.k.a. Bishop Berkeley, a proponent of idealism, the belief that reality consists exclusively of minds and their ideas.
40 Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov.
July 25 ’04
Simsy—
I have just written nine different drafts — nine — of a roughly 25-word paragraph ending with Don’t do it, Rodya!41Still not right, but now a tentative index card in my shoebox tops.42 What with Catherine the Great’s commode in there already, you may write my entire next novel!
Thine—
D.
41 The phrase from the graffiti I’d found outside Raskolnikov’s apartment.
42 David composed his last four novels by writing notes on index cards, then filing the cards in shoebox tops, editing the individual notes until he was satisfied, and finally, rearranging the cards until finding the right order. He speaks of this in greater detail during the interview we did for Rain Taxi, page 123.
Aug 26 ’04
Dear Laura
Thank you
I am pleased to have it43
But the poems are so
Difficult
I will try
Some more
Times
Thine
David
(But probably will need more times than that.)
43 A copy of Bank Book, my first chapbook of poems, published by Answer Tag Press.