Puzo/Pynchon (not an obsession)

[Peter Giordano]

There are those who would argue that there are no accidents -
Out of curiosity, after reading Meg(?)'s message I decided to take
a look at THE GODFATHER - And it's a funny thing ... in the Library
of Congress classification scheme Mario Puzo and TRP sit next to 
each other on the shelves (PS3366.U9 & PS3366.Y55) - So then I 
began to wonder if the ifc also helped Annie Proulx too (PS3566.R697)

I decided to cut the ifc some slack - Maybe he really did inspire Mario
to write THE GODFATHER - Certainly Mario wouldn't stiff the guy:
there would be some acknowledgement - So I looked at the first
edition (19th impression) to see - the book is dedicated "For Anthony
Cleri" - Is that Italian for "ifc"?  - I did look at Life magazine (july
10, 1970), Newsweek Mar 10 .69, and the Washington Post - I
also looked at the article in CURRENT BIOGRAPHY (1975) which gives
a pretty complete resume - CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS (NEW REVISION SERIES) 
Volume 42 pp. 366-367 gives a list of Puzo's jobs before he made it big and it
also gives an interesting explanation by Puzo on why and how
he decided to write THE GODFATHER - I would love to see a copy of Puzo's
THE GODFATHER PAPERS AND OTHER CONFESSIONS in the
hope that the ifc gets the credit there - One would hope that Mario would
have bothered to give credit to a person who made him a multimillionaire -

The situation here is perfect - We now have an author who is NOT
a recluse who is associated with the ifc - The guy has even written a memoir!!
I would LOVE to eat humble pie (and I know how to cook it)

Investigating the Godfather connection  represents a legitimate research 
problem - How can claims about a reclusive author be verified beyond 
trusting the source of the claim - If somebody makes the claim that he
or she inspired a bestselling novel and that fact  can be verified by a third
 party then that lends credibility to the other claims - I'll be getting
a copy of the memoirs soon

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA