Subject: L. Manning Vines (was: Influences, autographs)
oconnort@nyu.edu
Date: Fri Mar 21 1997 - 11:29:41 GMT
> And, by the way, I always thought that Salinger's favorite author
> was L. Manning Vines.
This made me smile. When I was a freshly minted writer, out of college,
without a lot of job skills to market, I landed a job as a writer/editor
for a shadowy company that produced newsletters and other such documents
for investors. I often wrote many of the articles in the big journal the
company issued quarterly, but my boss was a maniac about certain details
(especially regarding the number of times a byline could appear in a
single issue). Therefore, I often used pseudonyms for many articles. I
have since found out that it is not an uncommon attitude about multiple
bylines at some publications, but at that time it seemed strange to me.
So, since I often had to use names other than my own, I wrote one
article and used the byline "L. Manning Vines."
Of all the feedback from readers, the only memorable letter came from
someone at an investment bank, indicating how much he enjoyed the
article by "Mr. Vines" and wondering if it were possible to hire him to
do some writing on a freelance basis!
I had no choice but to send a letter to the fellow under my own name,
indicating that I had spoken to "Mr. Vines" and that the writer was
not accepting any new freelance assignments because he was engaged in
writing a book.
Even now, there are too many levels of irony to begin to make sense of
it all....
--tim o'connor
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