re: Yes, we have no Hapworth

From: Kim Johnson <haikux2@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Nov 08 2002 - 12:02:54 EST

Some comment in advance, as plain and bare as I can
make it: My name, first, is Buddy Glass, and for a
great many years of my life--very possibly all
forty-six--I have felt myself installed, elaborately
wired, and occasionally, plugged in, for the purpose
of shedding some light on the short, reticulate life
and times of my late, eldest brother, Seymour Glass,
who died, committed suicide, opted to discontinue
living, back in 1948, when he was thirty-one.

I intend, right now, probably on this same sheet of
paper, to make a start at typing up an exact copy of a
letter of Seymour's that, until four hours ago, I had
never read before in my life. My mother, Bessie
Glass, sent it up by registered mail.

This is Friday. Last Wednesday night, over the phone,
I happened to tell Bessie that I had been working for
several months on a long short story about a
particular party, a very consequential party, that she
and Seymour and my father and I all went to one night
in 1926. This last fact has some small but, I think,
rather marvelous relevance to the letter at hand. Not
a nice word, I grant you, "marvelous," but it seems to
suit.

No further comment, except to repeat that I mean to
type up an exact copy of the letter, word for word,
comma for comma. Beginning here.

May 28, 1965
_____________________________________________________

Camp Simon Hapworth
Hapworth Lake
Hapworth, Maine
Hapworth 16, 1924, or quite
in the lap of the gods!!
Dear Bessie, Les, Beatrice, Walter, and Waker:

I will write for us both ....

**************************************************

you didn't think i was going to type in the whole
thing, did you. (i'm unable to supply the entire
story, so please don't ask off-list.)

but if you've never seen it, now you know how this,
shall we shall, infamous story starts (and how it gets
its title).

i have always liked buddy's intro. and now that i
think of it, it's interesting in the whit burnett
tribute he again uses a lamp metaphor.

i really got a chuckle out of anne's suggestion that
perhaps the person who called off the publication of
'hapworth' was seymour.

--kim

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos
http://launch.yahoo.com/u2
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Fri Nov 8 12:02:57 2002

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun Aug 10 2003 - 21:52:10 EDT