Wanda Unveiled

[Alan Westrope]

>Have come across a couple of reviews of that Donald Foster book (Author
>Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous {New York: Henry Holt, 2000]) in the
>past week or so.  Unfortunately, doesn't look like our public library
>system's ordered a copy yet, and I haven't had time to hunt it down (and
>is the rest of it worth shelling out for?

No.  And I should say that some of Foster's assertions and his overall
scholarship seem questionable to me (e.g., he misspells John Krafft's
surname...sigh).  The book seems to have been hastily cranked out for
the Oprahbrow market.

>Having not much read those letters myself, and, certainly, not with the
>care many have devoted to them, I've no strong, much less set, opinion
>on whether or not Pynchon wrote 'em, but I would note that, in regard to
>Foster's attribution, those "In days of old when night were bold ..."
>limericks are a subgenre perhaps second only to ones that begin to
>"There was a young man from Nantucket" or somesuch, i.e., not all that
>unusual (pace Tom Jones) ...

Agreed, although the Hawkins stuff sold *so* poorly and remained so
obscure that it's a stretch to imagine even TRP being familiar with it.
In any case, this quatrain (not a limerick, methinks) didn't carry much
weight with me, either, but Wanda's 1987 "Open Letter to Gary Snyder"
in the AVA did.  Wanda quoted a poem she claimed to have sent Snyder
when his son was born, some 18 years previously.  Foster contacted
Snyder at UC Davis, where he taught, and he confirmed that the poem in
question was written by Hawkins.  (There's more corroborative evidence
which I'm too slothful to type.)

>Anyway, and, again, I imagine many of you are hip to this tip, but
>Hollander does some pretty close reading of his own, and along lines
>that Foster might not have pursued, adds a little legwork on who was
>where and when, and makes a preety convincing case for Pynchon's
>authorship, with some interesting ideas on just what the implications of
>said attribution might be for reading the rest of the Pynchonian
>oeuvre.

I continue to share Dr. Krafft's skepticism (he sent Foster portions
of Pynchon's original typescript of _Vineland_ to aid his research).
Others, of course, are free to send Mr. Hollander money for the privilege
of reading his opinions to the effect that Pynchon, writing as Wanda,
called Alice Walker "a purple-assed baboon." :-)

For me, the strangest thing about this story was thinking about Steve
Moore, who had quite an interesting relationship with jack green himself,
perusing these letters while writing the Foreword, unaware that the "Wanda"
had corresponded with green and written a book called _Eve, The Common 
Muse of Henry Miller & Lawrence Durrell_, which asserted that green 
and William Gaddis were the same person.  Ah, irony...now where the hell 
is William Gass when we need him?!!?

(Apologies for any missing characters...my keyboard seems to be dying!)

-- 
Alan Westrope <awestrop at komarios.net> <awestrop at nyx.net>

Whish!  A gull.  Gulls.  Far calls.  Coming, far!  End here.