B007RT1UH4 EBOK (125 page)

I cannot say how I became interested in player pianos, it all started about 1947 in hopes of a (rejected) piece for the
New Yorker
’s Onward & Upward with the Arts & gathered winds from there well into the 60s. RIP

I am of course always interested in seeing intelligent commentaries on
J R
.

Yours

William Gaddis

Hollerith: Herman Hollerith (1860–1929) is credited with developing the modern tabulating machine in the late nineteenth century.

Jacquard [...] Babbage: Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752–1834) invented a loom in which the hooks lifting the warp threads were controlled by cards perforated to a desired pattern, a technique adapted by later by Charles Babbage (1791–1871) for an early calculating machine.

Thos J Watson: Thomas John Watson, Sr. (1874–1956), founder of IBM.

v. Neumann: John von Neumann (1903–57), Hungarian-born American mathematician, noted for his work on the theory, design, and construction of computers.

wellknown name: E. L. Thorndike (see
J R
581).

McNamara’s body counts: Robert McNamara (1916–2009), Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson.

To Rodger Cunningham

[
A professor of English at Sue Bennett College in Kentucky. On the basis of his dissertation “Cabala to Entropy: Existentialist Attitudes and the Gnostic Vision in William Gaddis’s
The Recognitions
and Julio Cortazar’s
Rayuela
” (Indiana University, 1980), I had invited him to contribute to
In Recognition of William Gaddis
, but his submission was in the end rejected by Kuehl for reasons of inaccessibility and style. It was eventually published, in somewhat revised form, as “When You See Yourself: Gnostic Motifs and Their Transformation in
The Recognitions
,”
Soundings
(71.4
[
Winter 1988
]
: 619–37), which he sent to WG.
]

Wainscott, New York 11975

10 May 1989

Dear Rodger Cunningham.

Just a note to thank you for sending along your Gnostic observations in When You See Yourself. I do think it unfortunate that they didn’t see fit to include it in the
In Recognitions
&c volume, it is indeed light shed from another direction & doesn’t seem that ‘inaccessible’ (a word that is anathema here) &, as sometimes happens in these cases, I learn things I was unaware of.* The concluding analysis of the end of the book breaking off ‘where perfection is still possible’ is interesting, in the light of this recollection: I worked then (as now) with fairly detailed outline notes & had literally at hand notes for what would have been perhaps another 20 or 30 pages (not the discarded final chapter) when, sitting back one night to review my progress, read that last sentence (‘. . . though seldom played.’) & was stunned, elated, dismayed, by the realization of the fact that this was the end of the book, for all of its strivings &c it ended, that is to say it ended itself, right there. Anything further would have been the (to me inexcusable) author stepping in & elucidating & thus milking, painting the lily (gilding the gold), killing with kindness, destroying the whole thing &
its
intent & integrity (that pompous & essentially dishonest wretch “John Gard(i?)ner”’s whine regarding nihilism notwithstanding, cf. his ridiculous reading of
J R
(
NY Rev. of Books
), the plagiarist for ‘moral fiction’ indeed).

*The Hymn of the Pearl bird/letter parallel is especially remarkable. I very much liked & have enshrined your closing quote (Aunque sepa los caminos . . .),

Yours,

W. Gaddis

closing quote: the epigraph page in the bound galleys of
FHO
has “Aunque sepa los caminos / yo nunca llegaré a Cordoba” (Although I may know the roads / I will never arrive at Cordoba—quoted by Cunningham from
R
.
D. Laing’s
Facts of Life
), but the published book has a remark by Henry David Thoreau instead (first used in
R
).

To Steven Moore

[
My monograph
William Gaddis
was published by Twayne in May 1989, at which time I sent WG a copy. I also told him I had left New Jersey for Illinois to work for Dalkey Archive Press/
Review of Contemporary Fiction
.
]

Wainscott, New York 11975

14 June 1989

Dear Steven Moore.

Many thanks for sending me your book. On a brief examination it looks like it should put an end to such industry for a good while & the exhaustive range of references is quite impressive (though I confess I’ve made a number of starts at the classic seminal Melville’s
Confidence Man
& not progressed & must give it another try).

A bright moment addition to your charting of trivia last week when I was given a Governor’s Arts Award, aegis of NYS Council &c with a fancy turnout at the Metropolitan Mus. & fancy company (Miles Davis, Baryshnikov (sp?)) & I must say I was quite impressed by Mr Cuomo, quick, humour, energy, informed (but will it sell books?).

Did I congratulate you on your new publishing arrangement & (I think) sensible flight from East Coast vendettas (though I doubt I could survive the trip), & wish you good luck with it.

all best regards

W Gaddis

Miles Davis, Baryshnikov: superb trumpeter and dancer, respectively.

Mr. Cuomo: Mario Cuomo (1932– ), governor of New York from 1983 to 1994.

To Sarah Gaddis

14 June 1989

Dear Sarah.

Another ‘souvenir’! But the evening itself was quite impressive, the ‘presentations’ in an auditorium at the Met. Museum by the Governor whose high praise for my work won me over to him completely & I would vote for him tomorrow . . . seriously though he is a very impressive fellow, sharp, quick, listens, humour &c, & then a very large reception afterwards in a vast Met indoor court (just off the ‘armour’ collection), lots of handshaking &c & I think Matthew had a ‘good time’, said he thought (as did others) I had made a very good (the best) acceptance brief speech (in which I thanked them for the award, then said I had been leery of awards ever since
J R
won the Natl Book Award which I thought might sell books though MHG told me most people thought the NBA stood for Natl Basketball Assn & then ‘my publisher’ told me the book was already pegged as elitist (ie difficult) & since the NBA was regarded as an elitist award it might frighten off any who still might have bought it). Lots of warm laughter. If there is one thing I have learned in ‘public speaking’ it is that audiences simply ache to laugh, give them any excuse to & they will. Anyhow now I have this heavy knee high steel sculpture which will go nice with my Schnabel portrait [...].

It has been pouring rain here day after day which has not helped my spirits sitting down to the typewriter, looking over what I’ve written so far & thinking about recasting the whole thing; piles of legal papers notes books & dismay that I have got in over my head again with maybe still time to get in and cut material before it gets into a floundering draft rather than after. I believe assume trust & hope that yours is in much better shape as it must be having got as far as you have & I hope able now as I’ve said to cut & restore some of the sharpness & dry wry observations of what you actually went through in ‘those days’ . . .

MHG is deeply involved in his film project (which I have not read), I only worry what is at stake as it is for you & was for me with
The Recognitions
and I guess all of us trying to do anything well of inevitably so much riding on it, with the fear (from my own experience obviously) of the day when the world shrugs or simply turns its back—but those are the risks we take. [...]

much love always,

Papa