April 10, 2008
Books I Read and Loved: Gordon Lish, The Quarterly
Not exactly a book, each issue reads like one. Renner and Scroggins were in early and many issues of the magazine. Each one is curated, and reads like a novel in some ways. At the time, it felt like literature was real, was a possibility, that good writing could live in America. It’s interesting how much of that sense was dependent on one person.
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I remember those days–we were always so excited to see a new issue. And the people whose early work appeared in those pages! Mark Richard, Rick Bass, Diane Williams, Yannick Murphy. Not to mention Daryl Scroggins and Cooper Esteban. It was magical, it was.
this longing.
I still have all the copies I ever got my hands on. Just thrilling! Anyone know the scoop on Enid J. Crackel? Remember the poems translated by Patty with the trans-lato-wheel? I loved Paulette Jiles in addition to the names you mention above. I feel like crying. Ann Pyne. There are more.
Rick, at some point, I’d love to have an account of your time working with Gordon. Am I remembering that correctly?
Daryl and I always assumed that Enid J. Crackel was Gordon.
had to have been.
I wish there was a website somewhere that listed all the table of contents. I’d love to know what you all think the best issue is.
I think we have a complete set. Maybe this summer when Daryl’s not teaching he will scan the TOCs and post them. I do recall that I had a favorite issue, but I don’t recall which number it is.
the one that sticks out for me is the one that was almost entirely devoted to that one novel. I forget the woman’s name, but that was a great book. there is also one with a father’s letter to his son that sticks with me. and of course seeing Renner and Daryl published made me so fucking happy, as well as Diane Williams, Brian Evenson, Gary Lutz. goddamn, what talent.
I think I have a full set too.
Hope you guys pre-order this book on Lish –
http://www.routledge.com/books/Gordon-Lish-and-his-Influence-on-Twentieth-Century-American-Literature-isbn9780415991773
Enid Crackel may have been a woamn living in the building where Lish is on the Upper West.
I recently spent 10 days at the Lilly Library/Indiana Univ. going thru Lish’s archived papers. Many edited ms. from The Q, Esquire, Knopf, copiesof Genesis West, etc. Was interesting to read inner office memos and correspondence between Lish and Barry Hannah, Mary Hemingway, Don DeLillo, Vera Nabokov, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, Neal Cassidy, Tom Wolfe, Stanley Kubrick, Amy hempel, Robert Gottlieb, etc etc….and oh, Carver, lots of Carver.
Oh Deron,
Where would I be now, had I “worked” with Gordon Lish? He was an absolute amazement for me. I think I’ve recounted briefly “literally sitting at his feet,” at a fiction–oh, shit, what would we call it? retreat? in Indiana. Three days. We met at a woman’s house. Sat in her living room floor around him. He said he could talk for hours, and we were free to get up and go to the bathroom, or if we had to indulge in the nasty habit, smoke, but he made it clear we would miss something if we did. I never got up to smoke, but I think I did get up once to go to the bathroom. Who knows what I missed?
I never worked for Lish, except for working hard on the “stuff” he proposed. Somewhere in this house, I have a blue canvas notebook with my notes of my time there. I sat with Lish two times. The time I just partially described, the second in a classroom at the University in Indiana. I think I mentioned before, across the aisle from me, Gary Lutz, and on the other aisle and one seat forward, Barton Allen. I think Michael Kimball was in my first sitting. I think he may have been 17 or so then.
Jesus, jesus, jesus! Just to sit there! Just to hear Lish talk. Honestly, his words came into my head, into my heart. My experience there colored every writerly notion I had inside me. And his admonishment: Do you have the sand to dare stand the test of time? You’re up against Shakespeare! You’re up against the Bible!
In little moments I try.
I did have a conversation on the phone with Gordon, when I was in NYC my first time with Saks. I was terrified to try to call him. I sat while they passed it through. He talked for several minutes, said things like, “if you need directions, ask anyone, we all love to help folks find their way around.” He was right. Toward the end of our conversation, he said, “What must you do? You must go to (I may not get this exactly right, it has been many years) Portabello Road, a little Italian restaurant on Thomas in the Village. You must order “Sole Bocca Des,” it isn’t on the menu. Tell them Gordon sent you.” I did. I still remember the taste and feel of it in my mouth. Honestly, the best thing I’ve ever tasted.
The thing I most remember? In a short, short note rejecting once again something I’d sent him, he said, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t have your speech.”
I think that may have been the day I started talking.
Rick, that is beautiful. Thank you. For some reason, it has been in mind that you worked in the office at the Quarterly.
I actually thought you might have at some point. How did you come to create elimae?
that’s sort of a long story, but suffice to say, without Gordon’s agreement to do an interview, it wouldn’t have been the same. he called me out of the blue at work because Renner had told him what I was up to. I’d never talked to the man in my life. followed him from afar. and suddenly this voice on the other end of the line said, Deron, this is Gordon.
I love it.
Here is another link to my Lish study, with a pre-order link –
http://www.taylorandfrancis.co.uk/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?curTab=SERIES&id=&series=880123&parent_id=&sku=&isbn=9780415991773&pc=/util/showpromobyname.asp!promoname=Highlights
Tho at ecampus it is cheaper –
http://www.ecampus.com/bk_detail.asp?isbn=9780415991773
It’ll be on Amazon and such soon….the price is high because all acadmeic publishers have high prices, since the majority of their sales are to university and research libraries. This was one of my hesitations about going with Routledge, but in the ned they were the best publisher of the ones that showed interest in taking on the work.
One would think Indiana Univ. Press would have been a good p;ace, but they were uncertain on how to market it. It looks like, however, I will be writing Raymond Carver’s biography for Indiana UP (tho Scribibner has one coming out in 2009).
Do any of you remember the marvelous thing (by Patty Marx, I think) that ran for quite a number of pages in the “back matter”, short paragraphs each on its own page, in which an obviously young girl pondered hilariously why everyone hated her? It became a children’s picture book several years later–Now Everyone Really Hates Me. A marvelous book.
Thank you for that reference. It means more than you might imagine.
I guess I missed this thread. Must have been asleep. Rick, were you in Bloomington in 95′ or 96′? I was in those two classes with both Lutz and Allen. Then in 97′ at the end of Lish’s traveling class career we had the last one in Chicago. Lutz and Allen came to Louisville and we drove up together in my auto, stayed downtown in some hotel together, walked to class every day, and spent every night after class with Gordon, eating, walking all over town, and talking, much to the dismay of all the ladies who had come with the hope of maybe hanging out with that handsome lady-killer. It was odd in this one respect. Gordon typically chose the ladies over the men, but for some reason he really wanted to hang out with Barton, Gary, and myself that week. We even had John Rybicki one night with us bouncing off the walls in our hotel room, Gordon telling a story (always teaching) regarding being manic-depressive and knowing when to leave the party. Precious times.
M Sarki
I remember the second time (in the classroom) when I was there I remember Lish said something like “You know who is a force M Sarki. M Sarki is a force.” or something like that and I remembered your name from some recent “Q’s” but I had no idea you were there in the room!
Precious to me too, though I would have been terrified to have “hung out” with Gordon–too worried I would say something unforgivable, I wouldn’t trade anything for my time in his presence.
Ann Pyne
Nearly a year ago I missed your comment. Makes me sad I didn’t see it then. I can tell you, your story “The Enlargement” still works me over every time I think of it. And I think of it more often than you might imagine. I believe it is the last paragraph, I’ll misquote, but the essence is there. “Everywhere where now there is a light place there soon would be a dark place…: Honest to God where did those words come from, from you, to copy the essence of my being at the time? Or now?