Sergei’s last post prompted this quick one–the reader’s reports from the Knopf archives he references show such an intimate glimpse into the whole project of publication. Also, a humanizing glimpse. A rejection isn’t determinate–or necessarily objective.
But, that intimacy–the ‘humaness’ of the whole thing–is pretty heartening. It’s good to know that publication is not objective, scientific, static, or even consistent.
In keeping with that intimacy, that ‘humaness,’ here’s a link to Phil Davis‘s guest blog post on moreintelligentlife.com. (I found it via OUPblog.)
“I Was Brodsky’s Minder” is a memory of hosting Brodsky for a reading in Liverpool. Lovely in its own right, what I find most touching in the post is the remembrance of Brodsky composing a note to the actress Susannah York. A bit frustrated by the time it was taking Brodsky to ask her to breakfast the next morning, Davis blurted out “You are a Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. It’s only a note.” Brodsky’s return “that these things take time” is a perfect moment caught by Davis. It’s startling to see Brodsky so human. The note finally becomes this: “If it would not be too boring for you, could you manage breakfast with me tomorrow?”
I’d be lying if I said that this did not attract me to Brodsky’s work. Maybe that’s some of the attending powers of biography.
Or this bit from the post–Bernard Malamud’s last note to himself (Davis is Malamud’s biographer in Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life) was “Don’t be fragile,” written four times.
Who is not moved by that intimate glimpse? By that humble request? I’m astonished at how very vulnerable and human Malamud seems just in reading Davis remember that note.