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February082008

Maryann Burk Carver Responds to the Latest Story About Carver and Lish

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

At Pinky's Paperhaus—where Carolyn Kellogg also wondered why there was no byline on "Rough Crossings," the recent essay in The New Yorker that introduced an exchange between Raymond Carver and Gordon Lish, and preceded Carver's original draft for "Beginners"—Carver's first wife, Maryann Burk Carver, posts a series of thoughts about her life and Carver's, Lish's editing, Carver's writing process, and the intersection of all of the above. From her comments:
My seeing this site has made me aware of the extent of the response to the New Yorker piece, and the need perhaps to rebut some of it, much of which I already have done in my memoir. I talk about Ray’s early association with Gordon Lish and the good he did Ray as a publicist for him and his work in New York: The agents he introduced him to, and the other markets, besides Esquire, where he was Fiction Editor and published “Neighbors” and “What Is It?”, aka “Are These Actual Miles?”, (a title change I emphatically disagreed with, as the first reader and “editor” of Ray’s stories for over twenty years).
The question of who wrote the New Yorker intro, should that be haunting you, is still up in the air, but Carol Sklenicka, who writes in to say she's working on a new biography of Carver, provides a plausible clarification that echoes that of fellow biographer Michael Hemmingson: "I checked with several people in New York, including Gary Fisketjon (Ray’s last editor, who is quoted in the New Yorker article) and was told that David Remnick, the editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, wrote the article. [That was also the understanding of NPR reporter David Gura. —Ed.] But it seems likely that William Stull, who edited the proposed book of stories with Tess Gallagher’s cooperation, provided the template for this unsigned piece." Sklenicka concludes, sensibly: "The whole story of Carver’s life is complicated, as Kellogg points out, and I’m trying to get all of that into my book. It takes time and care."

Still, why leave it unsigned? Since when does the modern The New Yorker use "templates" and not bylined writers? It's too long a piece to be a generic introduction. Oh well, I'm sure there's a long story we may never know. It didn't put me off, in any case; I always like reading about complex writer-editor relationships, and I'm always interested in both Carver and Lish. That said, as you can see, it's a daring decision to perpetuate a mystery among an already conspiracy-mad fan base!
6 comments

Comments

It reads like Stull's writing. Maybe it was a collaboration. I had no idea about Carol's bio. Nor did my agent. Publishing is complicated. Every major author has more than one bio out, and I am sure there will be more to follow and may be more "in the works" -- I would not doubt Prof. Stull has been working on one has he write the first major short-form bio that is often the primary source for many Carver scholars.

Michael HemmingsonMarch 02, 2008

Re the above...Man I type like I'm drunk. ;)

Michael HemmingsonMarch 03, 2008

I have a memoir published by St. Martin's Press in hardback in 2006, with the paperback out in 2007: What It Used to Be Like: A Portrait Of My Marriage To Raymond Carver, by Maryann Burk Carver, speaking of biographies of Ray (two coming that we know of, etc.). I knew Ray for thirty-three consecutive years and was married to him for twenty-five, after a two-year courtship. We have two children, four grandchildren, and soon to have four great-grandchildren.

Maryann CarverMarch 07, 2008

Thank you for writing that book Maryanne.
It was a great experience.
I'm glad our paths crossed.

Glen CasebeerNovember 10, 2008

Maryann: I've been trying to get in touch with you without luck, but I loved your book about your life with Ray. I'd love to invite you to San Diego to see our production of three of Ray's stories as plays.
Please check it out on www.laterthanever.org and if you can make it down, please let me know and come as our guest.

Federico MoramarcoJanuary 01, 2009

Dear Mr. Moramarco:
Thank you for your kind words about my book and your invitation to come to the theater in San Diego. I shall try to take you up on it.

It should be wonderful to see the stories on the stage, as it was to see Book-It's production of Ray's stories in Seattle. (I joked with my friend at the time, "Nothing like feeling thrice-removed," but in actuality, I felt very moved).

I'll be in touch in the next few days.
Best,
Maryann Carver

Maryann CarverJanuary 06, 2009

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