Re: William Maxwell


Subject: Re: William Maxwell
From: citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Date: Fri Aug 04 2000 - 14:03:15 GMT


> They do mention, however, two occasions when his judgement
> was not completely vindicated by subsequent events. He is said
> to have tried to dissuade Salinger from publishing Zooey as being
> 'not our style of surrealism' (presumably the New Yorker's style.)
> And - much more deplorable in my personal view - he rejected
> Auden's marvellous 'September 1, 1939' when in charge of the poetry
> section of the magazine.

Scottie, I thought if you had been at the helm, in this case you too would
have tried to talk some sense into Jerry re 'Zooey'. I vaguely recall your
post about reading 'Z.' after a good many years and finding a lot of dead
meat in it. Personally, I think 'Franny' is by far the more successful
story. Unlike 'Zooey', one does not have to be a "Glass initiate" to sit
still till the end. Of course, JDS himself, or Buddy, says that 'Z.' is a
prose home movie. Now that I think of it, the Glass stories, in general, at
the hands of an *unkind* critic, could be described as home movies and
better left for private consumption. I also would admit that after the
story 'Raise High', JDS's work becomes more and more vulnerable to
reasonable critical attacks. But, I must add, this is an admission of one
of the *weirdos*, one of those who stands in airports and public squares,
not chanting Hare Krishna, but handing out paperback copies of F & Z and RH
& SAI.

As for 'September 1, 1939', isn't that the very poem that Auden refused to
republish in his later collected volumes?

> I know his name has cropped up before on the list in connection
> with his editorial work with Salinger & I'm sure some bananafish
> must be able to offer more gen - in which I'd be very interested.

About six to eight months ago, The New Yorker ran an excellent Profile on
Maxwell. I don't save magazines, so I can't quote the exact date for a
possible search at your local library. Perhaps another bananafish has it
handy.

--Bruce

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