Gaddis Letters

[rich]

Hiya

Making my way through the NYRB edition of Wm Gaddis letters, edited by
Steven Moore. I'm not surprised the letters are erudite, sarcastic,
self-deprecating, etc etc, but having read gaddis for many years, I can
only claim them to be revelatory. It feels like when Get Back  was released
a few yrs ago, having read so much about the sessions and seeing what
transpired in living color decades later. The letters provide one with such
insight into his thoughts, struggles, travels, etc. that you can see how he
ended up writing what he did. Granted, i'm in the Recognitions years.
Kudos has to go out to his mother, since in the early years that is who he
wrote to predominantly, hearing his pains and goofs, helping with money and
books and clothes.
Gaddis is ever the traveler, mentioning how Robert Louis Stevenson and
Eugene O'Neill and others bounced from city to city, odd-jobs here and
there and writing, though Gaddis had more money troubles which he laments.
Of course, all the wittiness in the novel is in the letters. His letters to
Katherine Anne Porter are particularly eye-opening. He met many other
luminaries along the way: Walker Evans (Wyatt Jr's appearance is based on
him), Auden, Robert Graves, Evelyn Waugh (who was aware of him at least),
and more I'm sure.
What shines through is his 'beat-like' perspective but without any of the
pretentiousness (think Zappa and his attitude to the rock scene), a man
with similar characteristics to those later known in the scene (I know he
knew Ginsburg and others), but still an outsider.
It also led me to think what would a Pynchon equivalent look like--who were
his main recipients over the years. But I realize these letters did not
appear until decades after Gaddis' death.
In any case, a pleasant addition to the Gaddis canon.

rich