My Weblog: Remembrance of Authors Past

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It was such fun to get this essay from John Gaspard—because I think of Peter DeVries so often! No, really I do. He’s the one who said, “I only write when I’m inspired. And I make sure I’m inspired every morning at 9.”

When people ask me about writer’s block, that always in my answer.

But John is thinking about Peter DeVries for another reason.

Writing for ... Posterity?

By John Gaspard

I was reminded recently of a short passage from John Irving's The World According to Garp, which I read not along after it came out in 1978.

It's in the final chapter, called Life After Garp, and I was surprised at how clearly I remembered the segment: She [Garp's daughter, Jenny] made a point of going into every bookstore and asking for her father's books. If the store was out of stock, she would order.

She had a writer's sense of immortality: if you're in print and on the shelves, you're alive.

Another author deserving of this Jenny Garp treatment is Peter De Vries. Who? You see, that's the problem.

When Peter De Vries died in 1993 at the age of 83, none of his 23 novels were still in print. And this from a writer who had three of his novels made into movies (The Tunnel of Love, Pete 'n Tillie, and a personal favorite, Reuben, Reuben).

Fortunately, many of his books have recently been reissued in paperback and Kindle formats, but how sad that a writer who was so admired by James Thurber that he personally recommended him to be on the staff of The New Yorker had been so quickly forgotten.

De Vries was a friend and neighbor with J.D. Salinger. He was the first American to publish Dylan Thomas. He famously wrote: "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."

He less famously wrote: "One dreams of the goddess Fame and winds up with the bitch publicity."

Did you enjoy a cartoon in The New Yorker between 1944 and 1987? It's likely that De Vries had a hand in making it funny. Or funnier. He wrote his last novel in 1986. By 1993, he was out of print.

That's a sobering thought for anyone who (figuratively or literally) puts pen to paper. For surely, one of the myriad reasons we create and publish is to have our thoughts and ideas live on after we're gone.

Stephen King refers to writing as a conversation with a future reader and I think that's what we're all working toward--a continuing conversation long after we've finished talking (or breathing) at our end. Now that we live in a digital world, it's less likely that any of us will ever, really, be "out of print."

But will we still connect with the reader of the future long after we're gone? Is it even worth worrying about?

Let me run the risk of steering this essay in another, unwelcome direction (such is the problem of separating artists from their art) by concluding with an apt quote from Woody Allen:

“I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”

QUESTION: Do you have a favorite, little-known or forgotten author deserving of the Jenny Garp treatment in order to keep their works in front of readers today and in the future?

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Do you know the author M.T. Anderson? He’s amazing. In one of his incredibly intelligent YA novels, called The Clue In the Linoleum Lederhosen (no, really it is, and it’s brilliant) he has characters (who are fictional characters) (too complicated to explain) reveal how the only thing that gives fictional characters “life” is when people take their books out of the library and read them. When the circulation of those library books stops..the characters die.

Oh. I tear up every time.

So yes, and John’s question is well-asked. Who would you like to re-introduce to the world? Author---or even a character?(And see below for John’s generous giveaway!)

* * * John Gaspard is the author of the Eli Marks mystery series, published by Henery Press. The first book in that series, "The Ambitious Card," is now available as an audiobook on Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

John will be giving away TWO FREE COPIES of the new audiobook to blog readers.

Leave a comment below; winners will be drawn randomly. http://henerypress.com/john-gaspard/

Listen to a sample from the audiobook of "The Ambitious Card": http://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-Thrillers/The-Ambitious-Card-

Audiobook/B01AH1Q53C/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1452867819&sr=1-1

Comments

Mary Laswell wrote a series of books about three ladies of a certain age that band together during World War II. I began reading them when I was a teenager in the 60's. The books in this series include:

Suds in Your Eye (1942; also adapted as a play)
High Time (1944)
One on the House (1949)
Wait for the Wagon (1951)
Tooner Schooner (1953)
Let's Go for Broke (1962)

Posted by: Ellie Enos | February 02, 2016 at 04:36 PM

One of my all time favorite authors is Sandy Dengler. She writes in the Christian market, and she writes some amazing book. I do wish more people would read them.

Posted by: Mark | February 02, 2016 at 09:07 PM