Pretty wow, if I say so myself-- since it isn't me. The Esquire requisition-- by Arnold Gingrich himself,-- to pay Thomas Pynchon for the Crying of Lot 49 excerpt.

[Mark Kohut]

A little more of my book experience some might like to read.

I cannot find the original price of the hardcover of *The Crying of Lot 49.*
But given the year and
small size, I'm going to judge it had to be under $10. (I have a shaky
memory that i saw $7.95
on a library copy once. )

Anyway, at 15% royalties, Tom would have to have sold @5830 copies to earn
the amount of the Esquire excerpt.



On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 3:35 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am too much a fanboy but 1) I don't think any Pynchon scholars or few,
> have seen this document. Many don't know the terms (amount)
> and timing, I don't think. I, at least, never knew the amount, did you?
> Anyone, anyone?
>
> Inflation calculators show this $800 is equal to @$7000 today. ...Further
> on this guy's site---he saved these documents from the
> trash at Esquire and framed them......I say documents because there are
> three others, one a bit later in the 60's shows Ms Donadio
> getting a grand grand for Roth for an excerpt from what was not then
> entitled* Portnoy's Complaint. *
>
> I'll drop the wows. One man's wow is another guy's old news.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 1:23 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Oh.  So this is an ancient non-story?  A story that never was?  So much
>> for that “wow.”  Mark is way too much a fan boy, and I don’t do Twitter.
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 1:08 PM Tyler Wilson <tbsqrd at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Isn’t this clearly just the payment he received for the excerpt that
>>> appeared — pre-publication! — in the December 1965 Esquire issue. Seems
>>> pretty straight forward . . .
>>> —
>>> T
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > On Aug 25, 2021, at 9:51 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > It’s impossible to understand *anything* about this $800 payment w/o
>>> any
>>> > context.  Like, was “fair use” violated, and, if so, how?  That would
>>> be my
>>> > first question.
>>> >
>>> > David Morris
>>> >
>>> >> On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 12:45 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> https://twitter.com/DanielTorday/status/1430549770146250754/photo/1
>>> >> --
>>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>> >>
>>> > --
>>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>