Candida (CAN--dida) and Melanie & Thomas & Chinese take-out

[Mark Kohut]

Candida was dumpy and not as attractive as many women, writes the author, important
because there are a couple of stories about how she refused to even talk to young attractive
women when introduced....one Amy Denham, ambitious to be a writer, and with work, yet who also scored
a Playmate gig, was introduced to her at a literary party and she sat and said nothing.....
"Big mistake', said Joe Heller and "I should not have introduced her to my wife either", whom she dissed.
 
She made Joe but after nearly 26 years, after Joe's illness and a royalty fight with S & S, when he got divorced, fired his 
accountant and his lawyer and the next lawyer, he dumped Candidasaying she failed to support him against S & S, \
 
"Candida was devastated, particularly as she was on the verge of losing another cherished client, Thomas Pynchon. Melanie
Jackson, Donadio's young assistant, had become romantically involved with Pynchon. ..The relationship rankled Donadio,
who seems to have discovered their dalliance when her accdountant pointed out an excessive number of Chinese take-out
receipts among Jackson's expenses. In 1982, Jackson left the agency, taking Pynchon and jseveral other authors with
her. Pynchon sent Donadio an unusually chilly letter, severing their professional tie and telling her to conduct any further
business with him through Melanie Jackson."----Just One Catch, p.365-366

From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 9:54 PM
Subject: NP Candida (CAN--dida) Donadio & Heller



Sharp characterization and some good stories about her in the Joe Heller biography,
"Just One Catch".....the agent of her generation, many believed...she was the one,
originally hired to do Girl Friday work at a literary agency, who secured permission to
submit the [one] chapter [of Catch-18] after lots of agents were not impressed. 

"She had more synonyms for excrement than anyone you'd ever run across," says Cork Smith,
Thomas Pynchon's first editor. --p178

"People told contradictory stories about Candida and they are all true."---Neil Olson  "I think she 
was as a shy, self-doubting, very smart, very sharp person who was capable of having these
operatic explosions."......

The biographer goes on to suggest that maybe it was all the contradictory qualities she contained that helped
her to feel the best of the new writing dealing with all of America's new contradictory currents...

Writer feels that Mailer and Jones' (And neglected Burns') war novels marked the high tide and death of
American naturalism...were written in the 'tradition of" such as Dos Passos and Dreiser. Soon,
irony, black humor, more language as language became the new voices of the new writers. 

The Trail partly stands behind Yoassarian's mounting missions and Celine's Journey to the End of
Night was a book Heller read and reread......
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