The New Yorker & text editing

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Oddly enough, the current issue of The New Yorker just arrived in time to
offer a perfect example of editing practices (given that we were just
discussing the metamorphosis of Salinger from slick writer to Serious NY'er
Writer, and wondering about who did the editing).

A couple of people on the list here have said to me, privately, that they
wish they had been around in the days when a fresh copy of The New Yorker
would roll off the press and offer a new Salinger story.  As it happens,
one of the writers *I* love to read -- Lorrie Moore -- is still writing and
often publishes in the magazine.

The current issue of The New Yorker offers a new story of hers: "Real Estate."

I am just in the middle of reading her forthcoming collection, "Birds of
America," which contains the previously unpublished story "Real Estate."  I
read the magazine version last night on the subway, coming home from work,
and re-read the ending this morning.

Imagine my surprise on the way to work today, when I figured I'd scan
through the book's version of the story, to see if there were any obvious
differences.  Yikes!  There is no comparison.  I mean, the story in the
magazine and the story in the book are the same story in terms of title and
characters and basic facts.  But the book version is much longer (almost
two pages of the word "Ha!" -- pared down to a single paragraph in the
magazine), and the parts are radically rearranged in order, and there's
much more CONTENT in the book version, which on first reading is vastly
more subtle, too.

Anyhow, for those of us who really like to delve into the editing process,
I say grab the issue with Lorrie Moore's piece in it, and then when the
book comes out next month, get it.  It's a *wonderful* collection, and I
suspect that a fiction writer (or a teacher of fiction writing) would get
tremendous mileage out of comparing the two versions.  I know this writer
has already got his wheels spinning....

--tim o'connor

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