Gratefully and Affectionately. Mary Lavin and The New Yorker <\/p>\n
Author: Gr\u00e1inne Hurley<\/p>\n
ISBN-13: 978-1-84840-930-9<\/p>\n
Publisher: New Island<\/p>\n
Guideline Price: \u20ac27.95<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting published in The New Yorker was \u2013 and still is today \u2013 notoriously difficult,\u201d Gr\u00e1inne Hurley writes in the introduction to her captivating account of Mary Lavin<\/a>\u2019s relationship with the famous magazine. <\/p>\n Hurley\u2019s sources are numerous, but consist mainly of 400 letters exchanged between Lavin and her editor, Rachel MacKenzie. Most letters dealt with editorial matters but, as a friendship grew, they became personal and provide valuable insights into Lavin\u2019s writing process<\/a> and her everyday life.<\/p>\n The book is arranged chronologically and charts Lavin\u2019s career from the moment she was introduced to The New Yorker by JD Salinger<\/a> in 1957. By then she was already a well-established writer but the New Yorker catapulted her into international fame and provided her with a good income, which, as a widow with three children, she needed. <\/p>\n Who\u2019d rely on short stories for a living? Well, someone with a \u201cfirst reading\u201d contract with the New Yorker, back then anyway. The first story published funded a deposit on the mews on Lad Lane, which became Lavin\u2019s Dublin<\/a> home. It was initially a bit of a shambles \u2013 but still.<\/p>\n This book demonstrates the link between literature and money. Lavin always wrote what she wanted to write. But when the New Yorker was publishing her regularly, she was under pressure to produce excellent short stories regularly and often. <\/p>\n Would her output have been smaller had she lacked the financial incentive the magazine offered? The New Yorker published 16 stories, including many of her best, over about 20 years. <\/p>\n