B007RT1UH4 EBOK (78 page)

Since Aaron is the publisher a letter from him would probably bear more weight than an agent do you think? But asking him would of course be to remind him yet once more of my delinquency (not that he is unaware of it!), and appear to project it on and on into spring, as I hope to Christ will not be the case. You may well have had this experience (jury service I mean, I know you’ve had the delinquency one) with writers before. What do you think? If you or he will write such a letter I think it should be sent to me and addressed to Clerk of the Court, United States District Court, US Courthouse, Foley Square, NY NY.

God knows there are ironies: practically everyone at the end of
J R
is being subpoenaed to appear at this same court & it would have been a marvelous experience if it had come a year ago (if it came now it would add another 60 pages . . .)

And what can I tell you about the delinquency itself? True, Christmas did not help work, and I have had to interrupt for two IBM job speeches—dentists, tuition &c and of course still desperate: but even these are excuses of reality to which you’re well used. I do get up every morning at 6:30 or 7, do come in to this desk and go on till 5 or 6, do hold my head in frustration, and in the end have no excuses for why this last part is so hard to bring off. Part of it is
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
, if you happened to see that excellent film. And that drawn-out metaphor of Gibbs’ book as the invalid in there defiantly waiting where one left him was not lightly inspired. [
J R
605]

I have to thank you for sending up
Les Reconnaissances
(got one Vol I & two Vol IIs) and the review from
Le Monde
which, to my broken-french eye, looks quite rave and God help us does not even mention Joyce I believe. I must say the book itself looks excellent (though apparently better proof-read in the French than Spanish), maybe I will be like Edgar Allen Poe (not at these prices). If I were on any decent terms (any terms at all) with Gallimard I’d ask them to send a copy to the director Alain Renais (sp?) homage for his film
Murie
l (with of course the hope he might like to do a big-scale US movie).

Proofs for the few pages (ie 10 out of some 400) for
Antaeus
came and I returned them titled simply

Untitled fragment from another damned, thick, square book which Halperin (Halpern?) said should be out in March, wish they’d taken a later fragment but doubt it makes much difference one way or another.

Finally, is there any way to know when Avon will make its 2nd payment to Harcourt, if I can get my part promptly when they do? Also occurred to me Avon might be interested in seeing the review from
Le Monde.

Candida believe me my attempt above to sound brisk and businesslike is just that, an attempt, I won’t retail the despair behind it but if you can hang on with me a little longer I am honestly trying to finish this God damned thing.

[carbon copy; unsigned]

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
: the 1962 British film directed by Tony Richardson and based on Alan Sillitoe’s 1959 story.

Poe: Edgar All
a
n Poe was revered by the French long before he was appreciated in America.

Alain Renais [...]
Muriel:
Resnais’s 1963 film
Muriel ou le Temps d’un retour
, with a screenplay by Jean Cayrol.

Halperin: Daniel Halpern (1945– ), editor and publisher. Pages 137–43 of
J R
appeared in
Antæus
13/14 (Spring/Summer 1974): 98–105.

Avon: a mass-market paperback edition of
R
was published by Avon (under its Bard imprint) in 1974 and went through three printings in succeeding years. However, it was reset from the first edition, thus ignoring WG’s corrections for the Meridian edition, and contained hundreds of typos of its own.

To Judith Gaddis

[
Written after Judith left for a trip, formatted to look like a classified report. MIL = mother-inlaw.
]

REPORTREPORTREPORTREPORTREPORTREPORTREPORTREPORT EYES ONLY EYES ONLY EYES ONLY EYES ONLY
AM
26FEB74 OFFICIAL CLASSIFIED 26FEB74 OFFICIAL CLASSIFIED