NP but Melanie Jackson

[Mark Kohut]

An old friend who worked at Avon has informed me that Candida Donadio was not 
Ms. Lurie's first agent....



----- Original Message ----
From: Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>; braden.andrews at gmail.com; nancy stewart 
<nancy.stewart at gmail.com>; pov at ix.netcom.com; robert wyatt <arba at aol.com>
Sent: Tue, July 5, 2011 10:34:09 AM
Subject: Re: NP but Melanie Jackson

OK. That's cool.


On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 5:04 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I pick up this Avon mass market paperback called REAL PEOPLE
> by Alison Lurie, whom I have read but long ago. This novel is
> copyrighted 1969..........
>
> One thing that is interesting is that on the copyright page, rather
> than citing the hardcover publisher---I am going to assume Ms. Lurie,
> already critically successful with some earlier books licensed as mass
> market editions, did have one for this short novel, but I will check that 
>out---
> the rights information refers to contacting the Melanie Jackson Agency and
> gives her address. It says this edition was published "by arrangement with the
> author"...
>
> This paperback printing was later than 1984 since it cites on the cover
> her Pulitzer for that year for FOREIGN AFFAIRS. My guess is that this book and
> her
> earlier work was reissued after her win.
>
> But, this is the most interesting bit: This novel is about a female writer
> spending
>
> a couple of weeks at a Writer's Colony (like Yadoo, but fictionalized)
> with major characters fictionalized
> yet references to real writers, too (adds verisimilutude, of course). Philip
> Roth remarks, quotes referred to
> here in 1969. We can assume the writer-narrator is probably modelled,
> sea-changed of course, on Ms. Lurie--
> the narrator has published a book of short stories and is trying to write 
more.
>
> In the course of this novel the narrator-writer alludes to her 
>agent----Candida.
> We know that Candida Donadio
> was a real agent and Pynchon's first and Melanie Jackson became his second 
>agent
> and, later, wife.
>
>
> More Misc. Ms Lurie has lifelong Cornell associations if i remember right,
> teaching there
> I do believe.
>