B007RT1UH4 EBOK (123 page)

Literary Democracy
: a book by Larzer Ziff (1982), quoted on p. 30 of
FHO
. Regarding Melville’s
Confidence-Man
, Ziff writes: “His theme drives toward pure wordplay; reality may not exist at all except in the words in which it presents itself.”

John Holdridge: a lawyer known for his active opposition to capital punishment.

Judge Motley: Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005), African American activist, lawyer, judge, and politician. She hired Cappio as a law clerk.

To Sarah Gaddis

23 Jan. 88

Dear Sarah.

Here is my annual letter. Or so it is beginning to seem, a year between them: I realize how long it is since you moved, & how few time(s) I’ve addressed you at rue tickeytun, to count my letters on the finger of one hand. Of course I could say “I’ve been waiting for these infernal pen refills to find their way from Germany to Parsippany NJ” to here & only hope they fit and work. Tiffany must have a store in Paris? If these don’t work I would march right in there and make a scene (like the Board member who quit over them).

Or I could say, “I’ve been waiting for these
Paris Review
people to send their new issue with the interview” which is, in part, true. It does just seem damned chatty doesn’t it. I mean I’ve by now read a number of critical pieces and dissertations on my work which I find far more filled with insight, wit, clear thinking and interesting connections than this folderol which almost seems to trivialize the work; but it scarcely matters. The purpose after all was simply to do one fairly long interview in a ‘serious’ place & get it out of the way so that when people come with this same threat I can simply direct them to this one without appearing to be some reclusive nut, to say this one pretty much covers all I’ve got to say about my work though of course that is not true either, that’s the problem with interviews, those 2nd thoughts (as, p. 59, What moved you to write
J R
? why didn’t I say a large part of energy came from revenge on that horrid town that Massapequa became, the vandalism that was really traumatic &c.) But that’s the advantage of a fiction, that one can go back and insert, clarify, rewrite, until it’s whole.

Which is what I’m rather stumblingly doing now: folders with ribbons & ribbons of paper laying out the step by step of Oscar’s car accident insurance, his copyright lawsuit, Lily’s divorce, her malpractice suit, a dozen suits springing from the ill fated outdoor sculpture
Cyclone 7
, & many many more. I am rather aghast at what I’ve let myself in for in areas where I am marvelously ignorant. Most of my contemporaries seem to be fiddling around publishing reminiscences about what an interesting fellow I was at fifteen, how I Became a Writer &c. Yawn. All this trepidation obviously over having pretty much got (though I haven’t yet signed) what I wanted in this contract with S&S, everyone saying great, wonderful, me saying my God what have I done!

So I’ve been trying to face the health area seriously, had a thorough physical examination where obviously the effects of the smoking show (though no scary spot on the lung &c). For this past week I’ve been trying to prove to all concerned, MHG Muriel you me &c that we aren’t dealing with an alcoholic, have had only 1 or 2 drinks daily (+ a glass of wine once or 2ce when guests at dinner), I certainly would enjoy a 3rd or 4th as of yore but do not feel driven to it or the need to go to some ‘drying out’ place. No, the real problem & battle is the tobacco, one more try this week going to see a hypnotist & if that doesn’t work I will take more extreme measures. Though MHG would like to see the more extreme measures right now he at least sees me making serious efforts along these lines for I think the first time, which I think gives him better spirits, planning to have him & some of his rowdy friends (Jeff, Jack &c) in on the 28th.* No words of course for all that your and his love and concern have done and are doing in all this so I’m working on the deeds.

with much love

Papa

*no, now he says one of their 50¢ Indian restaurants

vandalism: WG’s studio next to his mother’s Massapequa house was vandalized on 8 November 1960 by some teenagers, an event dramatized in
J R
(137–43).

Jeff, Jack: Jeff and John Holdridge (mentioned in the previous letter).

To Mary McCarthy

6 February 1988

Dear Mary.

Many thanks for your note and enclosure. As I get older I must say I recall more frequently my mother’s Panglossian view that ‘everything happens for the best’ (she also counseled me to always remember that there is more stupidity than there is malice in the world) —here demonstrated once again. I too found our ‘translator’ rather painfully self important, & was less surprised than annoyed when he quit on
Carpenter’s Gothic
to work in films where he saw more money thereby delaying publication with the search for a new translator. However during that delay Ivan Nabokov fled Albin Michel for, is it Presses de la Cité (more money) where he’s taking the book on condition he also signs up
J R
. I’d liked the girl Nina Salter at A-M- for her straightforwardness (& a stunning lunch at the Closerie des Lilas) but could not deprive
J R the opportunity to speak french.

Meanwhile I am pressing my luck here signing up for another (& I trust mercifully last) novel, after many gyrations, with Simon & Schuster, now all that’s left to do is to sit down & write it. [...]

best wishes from us both to you and Jim,

Willie

‘translator’: unidentified; the task was taken over by novelist Marc Cholodenko, who also did
J R
(Paris: Plon, 1993).

Ivan Nabokov: Ivan Nabokov (1932– ), younger cousin of the novelist, was at this time Editorial Director at Christian Bourgois éditeur. He had previously been Editorial Director for Foreign Literature at Editions Albin Michel, and subsequently held the same position at Editions Plon, where, under his Feux Croisés imprint, he also published French translations of
J R
and
AA
.

To Donald Oresman

Wainscott, New York 11975

16 June 1988

Dear Donald,

I haven’t thanked you or even acknowledged your earlier mailing, very aware time was passing but now quite embarrassed to see that it was a good month ago. Your brief succinct treatise on law & equity clears that up for me for the moment & appreciated accordingly as is all the Salinger material; & in fact it is your further good offer regarding complaint & answer in a case that accounts for my procrastination, thus:

In the central case in the novel, the main character has written an unproduced Civil War play and is suing a movie company; the issues are infringement and ‘fair use’. Since when I work I always need to know where I’m going, I decided to work out the Appeals Court decision (reversing the District Court) first, which won’t occur until about chapter VI, & then work toward it. This may not have been too wise: I am now flailing about among Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures (Learned Hand); Harold Lloyd Corp. v. Universal Pictures Co; Murray v. National Broadcasting Co.; & my correspondent (a young law clerk in the office of Constance Baker Motley) has even supplied Bright Tunes Music Corp. v. Harrisongs Music, Ltd. The Hand material is marvelous & my case largely based on (lifted from) that. Then to go back to Chapter II & work toward it, involving the letters & private papers (Salinger) & the briefs &c where rather than content I will only need form (“As and For a First Cause of Action” kind of thing) which should not go on at too great lengths if I can only restrain myself, and for which I guess almost any such brief, complaint & answer &c will serve as a model. From the foregoing it’s apparent how I double even triple the amount of work for myself but at this point despair of starting out fresh.

Your last mailing, the Serra v. G.S.A. appeal, is a delight with such straight-face lines as the work now “coated with what the artist refers to as ‘a golden amber patina’ and what the sculpture’s critics refer to as ‘rust’.” And the nice twist on the First Amendment privilege as now belonging to the Government, all most useful plunder when I get back to Szyrk.

We go to Italy in August presumably to work on this at that Rockefeller Foundation compound at Bellagio, meanwhile plodding onward and when I have any fragment that looks half finished I’ll send it along for your amusement.

with best regards,

Bill Gaddis