Loved reading this one - and you will be amused to know that my *first* reading was colored by my pre-coffee, no-glasses misreading that the Cheever letter was from John Cleese. Any idea the mental gymnastics required to make sense of that??
A lot of fun, this study of literary cringe, self-deprecation, and the temptation of inflation. (We do reflect back on the post opening with the photo and the names..... ). Honesty with cringe, who writes about that? I loved the letter from Maxwell to Levine. Phil was the first ever writer in Vassar's visiting writer program and I was in charge of his irascible, prickly, singular self (his College lodging then was above a nail salon and he was understandably unhappy). Phil would certainly have told (and did, in my presence, tell) nice people, joiners and true blue to get the hell out of the way. I had to love him for it.
Lovely to read this. BTW, Maxwell and Levine exchanged some letters in which the two of them, but Maxwell in particular, expressed their intolerance for Thomas Wolfe.
This is great. What is about Maxwell? So recessive. Almost scraping and fearful. A kind of Shawn alter-ego or an extension of the man himself. Lorentzen thinks he is the most overrated author in America. But somehow the quietness packs a punch, I feel. So Long See You Tomorrow, most of all. And then all of it interlaced with his life as an editor. Of Salinger, at one point. Of so very many amazing authors. including "the Johns", as I believe it was referred to by him or others--O'Hara, Cheever, Udike. Any rate, both your remarks and the primary sources here are great. I love that archive.
Loved reading this one - and you will be amused to know that my *first* reading was colored by my pre-coffee, no-glasses misreading that the Cheever letter was from John Cleese. Any idea the mental gymnastics required to make sense of that??
Such a delight reading this piece! Cole was such a fitting ending!
A lot of fun, this study of literary cringe, self-deprecation, and the temptation of inflation. (We do reflect back on the post opening with the photo and the names..... ). Honesty with cringe, who writes about that? I loved the letter from Maxwell to Levine. Phil was the first ever writer in Vassar's visiting writer program and I was in charge of his irascible, prickly, singular self (his College lodging then was above a nail salon and he was understandably unhappy). Phil would certainly have told (and did, in my presence, tell) nice people, joiners and true blue to get the hell out of the way. I had to love him for it.
Lovely to read this. BTW, Maxwell and Levine exchanged some letters in which the two of them, but Maxwell in particular, expressed their intolerance for Thomas Wolfe.
Makes sense....
disrespectable*
Newly respectable? Or once again ? Was it ever really made disrespecyable, or just hidden in plain sight?
This is great. What is about Maxwell? So recessive. Almost scraping and fearful. A kind of Shawn alter-ego or an extension of the man himself. Lorentzen thinks he is the most overrated author in America. But somehow the quietness packs a punch, I feel. So Long See You Tomorrow, most of all. And then all of it interlaced with his life as an editor. Of Salinger, at one point. Of so very many amazing authors. including "the Johns", as I believe it was referred to by him or others--O'Hara, Cheever, Udike. Any rate, both your remarks and the primary sources here are great. I love that archive.