Now for appearing as a character in the book of others, this may amuse you: a bit before the above, may even have been the late 40s, Chandler Brossard published a book titled Who Walk in Darkness which I recall as one of the earliest existentialist novels attempted here (New Directions) or such was my estimate. I seem to have been the model for a young Harvard drinks too much character who is finally mugged—not so kind a portrait as Kerouac’s but I’ve been fond of Chandler & it never upset me—I’ve no memory of that character’s name; but the model for the book’s protagonist, ‘Henry Porter’ I believe (he goes around calling everybody ‘old sport’), Anatole Broyard, was incensed indeed, & got his own back many years later reviewing a rather chaotic book of Chandler’s (I haven’t it at hand, had a title like Are We There Yet?) in a hatchet job the likes of which I’ve never seen but may well when my next appears for God knows what reason.
Use any of the above or not however you wish, of course ‘without attribution’. I’d be glad to sign a book, didn’t start early enough (as vs writing blurbs) with a policy against it & have now got a rich doctor named Naftali Nottman who’s sent me 3 or 4 with notes on Gucci stationery & a $10 bill for a drink, says he paid $130 for the last one & I’ve finally put a stop, recalling Howard Nemerov to a similar supplicant: Ah! you have one of the rare unsigned copies of the Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov!
Yours,
W. Gaddis
Alan Ansen: see headnote to 4 January 1954.
‘consciousness [...] ordinary’: a phrase from The Subterraneans.
Hewlett: a village on Long Island, though Ansen’s mailing address was Woodmere, a mile southwest of Hewlett.
Who Walk in Darkness: Brossard’s novel appeared in 1952. The character named Harold Lees has some of WG’s traits, though Brossard told me the character was a composite of several people he knew then. See my foreword to the Herodias edition of the novel (2000).
Are We There Yet?: Brossard’s Wake Up. We’re Almost There was viciously attacked by Broyard in the New York Times Book Review, 4 April 1971, 51. Several letters of protest regarding this review appeared in the 2 May 1971 issue, 32.
Naftali Nottman: Gaddis later found out this doctor was associated with North Shore Books, a Long Island rare-book dealer.
Howard Nemerov: American poet and novelist (1920–91).
To Steven Moore
[I was still verifying details (some from Koenig’s dissertation) for my introduction to In Recognition. I can’t remember what the first paragraph refers to, for I hadn’t been puzzled by that 1952 copyright notice, but the rest deals with the chronology and circumstances in which WG finished R.]
New York NY 10021
7 April 1983
Dear Steven Moore.
For your sake this is I hope the last of these bulletins. re Koenig*: The MS was not copyrighted (or even finished) in 1952 (I thought I’d written you this); that confusion has arisen here & elsewhere because roughly chapter II was copyrighted that year in the first issue of New World Writing, thus the misleading copyright notice in the book.
It was not a New England farmhouse but one outside a small town called Montgomery west of Newburgh NY & indeed an isolated winter & a frugal one on my small advance. Finally, I wasn’t revising but finishing the book. This vivid memory confirms that & may also clear up some other of Koenig’s misapprehensions, tales of a far longer MS, different endings &c:
I worked there daily & well into the nights with my usual stack of notes, 2nd thoughts, outlines &c till finally very late one night, having intended only to try to get through the sequence of Stanley at the organ to my satisfaction—& with still outlined notes at hand for spinning out the novel’s conclusion—I sat back to look at that last ‘still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard, though seldom played’ (anticipating, of course, the fate of the novel itself: for played read read) & abruptly realized, both appalled & elated, that I’d reached the end of the book; that no matter my planning & intentions, & even that sense of loss overreaching any of fulfillment, there was no arguing it: the book ended right there.
{It occurred to me you might want to quote this ¶ directly & do so if you wish to}
And so it must have been that I started revisions that summer of 1953 on Long Island, met Ansen then & the San Remo/Kerouac forays in & out of New York & took his place over when he went to Europe in the fall for another largely isolated (but better heated & funded with books) winter of revision.
I trust my next book will be done or ‘nearing completion’ by the time yours appears but for the present there’s nothing to say of it except that it’s shorter than its predecessors, the title & even the tag (A Romance) are tentative.
Yours,
W. Gaddis
*Why would anyone bother to change his “Christian” name? or is that the point of it, fleeing the New Testament for the Old —but it was Peter who wrote the thesis, wasn’t it?
{It occurred to me [...] if you wish to}: this is handwritten in the left margin alongside the preceding paragraph. I did indeed decide to quote it (on p. 8 of my introduction).
(A Romance): the working title for CG was “That Time of Year: A Romance.”
To Patrick P. Moynihan
[Democratic senator from New York (1927–2003) who criticized the Reagan Administration’s fear of Soviet-based plans for communist expansion in Latin America and its clandestine support of the terroristic Contras in Nicaragua. WG copied Senator Al D’Amato (see 27 May 1983) and Representative William Carney on this letter.]
Wainscott, NY
11 April 1983
Dear Senator Moynihan.
Congratulations at last from one of your constituents on the stance you have taken regarding the legality of this Administration’s current pursuits of its policy in Central America.
It becomes more clear daily that no policy could be better calculated to spawn precisely those ‘Cuba-model states’ its espousers decry; that no pronouncements concerning this policy could serve further to isolate the United States in Latin America and indeed world opinion than those so insultingly and crudely offered by this Kirkpatrick woman in the United Nations; and that one can ask no finer irony, in this question of legality stemming largely from the 1973 War Powers Resolution passed following public disclosure of our secret assaults in Cambodia and Laos, than the part played in those incursions by the leading proponent and presumed architect of our current unsavoury and self-defeating approaches in Latin America, Thomas Enders.
If as it now appears neither morality nor common sense can prevail in either this woefully obstinate Administration, or a Congress where the burden has been shouldered by so few courageous and outstanding men, perhaps your demand for a legal accounting is the most realistic and I urge you to pursue it with every bit of vigour, before the poor opinion of this country’s antagonists and bewildered friends alike is made fully justified.
William Gaddis
this Kirkpatrick woman: Jeane Kirkpatrick (1926–2006), the fiercely anti-communist U.S. ambassador to the U.N. at this time.
Thomas Enders: American diplomat (1931–96), at that time Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.
To Elaine B. Safer
[A professor (1937– ) at the University of Delaware who often taught R in her classes. In the letter below, WG responds to her essay “The Allusive Mode, the Absurd and Black Humor in William Gaddis’s The Recognitions,” which first appeared in Studies in American Humor 1.2 (October 1982): 103–18, and later became the basis for chap. 4 of her book The Contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey (Wayne State Univ. Press, 1988).]
New York, New York 10021
19 April 1983
Dear Ms Safer.
Thank you for sending me your essay on The Recognitions: a book ‘about false resurrections’ is one of the better encapsulations I’ve come across.
Should you plan to reprint it, you might wish to consider this correction (p. 115,
#1): the actual inscription on the Bosch table at which Wyatt as a child ‘trembles’ is Cave, Cave, Ds videt (page 25); the caveat emptor (p. 693) elaboration is Wyatt’s later commentary in the light of the way the sacred character of the original has been corrupted by forgery & its having been reduced to an item of commerce. (My page references here are to the original Harcourt, Brace ed. of the book, ie its 693 corresponds to the Avon 740–1 &c; I haven’t the Avon at hand, for which you might note that Steven Moore in his A Reader’s Guide to The Recognitions (Univ. Nebraska Press, 1982) lists 13 pages of errata).
Regarding your query, my mother’s maiden name was Edith Charles, her mother’s family name Williams who were Quakers & who in turn had some forebears among, as I recall, Nantucket Husseys (or Hussy). Unfortunately a small book by a deceased great great aunt tracing all this is off with papers stored elsewhere but I expect to have access in the next month or so & have put your address aside for a note to you when I do get this more precise.
Yours,
William Gaddis
To Steven Moore
[The “abrupt & startling possibility” raised by this letter was a false alarm. I did send WG about two dozen suggested corrections, most of which were later used for the 1985 Penguin reprint of R. WG never did write the preface he mentions below; after In Recognition came out, he said he felt I had covered the ground sufficiently in my introduction.]
New York NY 10021
25 May ”83
Dear Steven Moore.
An abrupt & startling possibility & more: word that Harcourt B—perhaps even in small or large part because of your efforts—plans to reissue The Recognitions.
I had talked to a woman there last year, largely in an effort to either squelch the Avon or get a few dollars from it, & got into the errata. Thus when she (is Irene Skolnik who handles reprints) learned of the above intention to reprint (of which of course the author is seldom if ever notified) asked them to hold off in order to incorporate corrections. I’d thought they would simply offset the Meridian + possibly a few of your corrections but—still all somewhat unclear—they simply wanted list of errata in the original ed. so I’ve dug around & unearthed all of Jack Green’s I could find in old correspondence & hope I have all of them. I have as you’ll see added a few of yours from Reader’s Guide though let some ‘irregularities’ stand (as the Steenken Madonna).
I think I’ve already alarmed them somewhat with my enthusiasm but am sending you here the list I sent them in case you have come across any more glaring horrors in your more recent investigations. If so could you send them to me & I’ll send on to them (them now being in San Diego)? so that there might at last be an ‘authorised version’. (Though some questionable items I think should remain such as the above, when the Picasso Night Fishing was first hung &c since these are explored in your annotations & I don’t want to sanitize it.)
I’ve also discussed with them the possibility of my writing a preface for it, in the old generation-later tradition of Norman Douglas’ South Wind, Clive Bell’s Art &c. though that might run into production (i.e. $) problems: if that should occur it might inevitably take some wind out of your & John K’s introduction in your book though I’d make an effort to not, and of course your Reader’s Guide would be suitably noted. Should it proceed I’d send you a copy promptly.
For the moment all they want is corrections; anything else I mention alarms them in cost terms, not even certain yet if they intend a hardcover, tradepaperback or both busy out there doing cost accounting sales projections all of the market madness that publishing has become.
Meanwhile as they race to some kind of finish line I would appreciate the above (any further corrections or an Imprimatur) & this further favour, since I am between 2 addresses this season of the year & forwarding is fanciful if you could send any response to both below. I’ll let you know of any further developments, disappointments &c.
Yours
W. Gaddis
Steenken Madonna: WG followed a 1921 book in identifying the donor of this painting as Herman Steenken (R 254), though a 1938 archival study disqualified him.
the list: enclosed with this letter were three legal-sized pages of corrections, about eighty-five altogether, most of which had been made for the Meridian edition, and all of which would be made for Penguin’s 1985 reprint.
Picasso Night Fishing: this painting was acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1952, but the novel’s chronology implies Wyatt saw it there several years earlier.
South Wind, Clive Bell’s Art: Douglas added an introduction to his 1917 novel in 1925; Bell’s 1914 book of art criticism was reprinted with new introduction in 1949.
To Al D’Amato
[American attorney (1937– ) and conservative Republican senator from New York (1981–99) who defended the Reagan Administration’s support of the Contras.]
Wainscott, NY
27 May 1983
Dear Senator D’Amato.
I appreciated your detailed response to my recent letter protesting Administration policy and actions in Central America.
In the light of past revelations I would seriously question Administration figures as to Cuban ‘advisers’ and Soviet weaponry in the area as I and much of the electorate do the validity of those last ‘elections’ in San Salvador; and I with many others believe strongly that in pursuing the Administration’s present course we are doing the Marxist-Leninists’ work for them throughout Latin America, and the Soviets’ throughout the world.
The killing of our Commander Schaufelberger and the expanded US adviser-training program in Honduras reported in this morning’s paper reflect not only the cynicism of Administration policy but even more painfully its contempt for the US Congress: its manipulations are an insult to the intelligence and the integrity of a serious man like yourself, and even to those in the Senate and the House with a good deal less of either.
I will surely appreciate your keeping my views in mind as the situation continues to deteriorate, since they are not simply my views but those of a growing number of Americans very deeply—and at times feeling quite helplessly—concerned for our country’s future.
Yours,
William Gaddis
Commander Schaufelberger: Albert Schaufelberger, a Navy Lieutenant Commander who was assassinated in El Salvador on 25 May 1983, the first of an American military advisor there.
To Ralph Sipper
[American rare-book dealer, editor, and critic (1932– ), who had sent WG his edition of the essays of American mystery writer Ross Macdonald (1915–83) entitled Self-Portrait: Ceaselessly into the Past (Capra, 1981) and asked WG to contribute to a memorial volume published in 1984 as Inward Journey: Ross Macdonald.]
235 East 73 Street
New York, New York 10021
27 May 1983
Dear Mr Sipper.
I believe that some weeks ago you were kind enough to send me a copy of Ross Macdonald: Self Portrait, with an accompanying letter requesting an appreciation of his work from me for a book you are publishing with Knopf. I have the book but have somewhere misplaced the letter (& address) & hope this may reach you despite its unpromising response.
Unfortunately & quite simply, I am just not acquainted with Ross MacDonald’s work (though know the name of course) & cannot picture who at Knopf might have recommended me for your project flattering as it may be. Because of the usual backslid pressure of work I’m not in a position to take enough time out for it to do your project justice.
I do appreciate your intentions & hope they prosper,
Yours,
William Gaddis
To Steven Moore
[A special session on WG’s work had just been approved for the annual Modern Language Association convention, to be held in New York City at the end of 1983. It was organized by Miriam Fuchs (a former student of Kuehl’s and a contributor to In Recognition of William Gaddis); the panel consisted of her, Frederick Karl, myself, and Kuehl, though the latter fell ill and was unabl
e to attend.]
Wainscott NY 11975
12 June 1983
Dear Steven Moore.
To yours of 7 June—& then some.
Again thanks for the corrections, forwarded along to San Diego (where Harcourt has taken refuge) though some ‘irregularities’ remain as material for your glosses & bait for future PhDs. As yet no word from Harcourt on whether or not for a preface though I’m not pressing them; but am threatening them with the MLA: incidentally I didn’t at first grasp Fred Karl in this, then realized he’s the same I met at dinner recently & who produced my serious reading assignment (after the frivolity of the new Kissinger), his book on Conrad. Quite heavy artillery.
No further thoughts on the MS study for the moment.