PLEASE VISIT NEW SITE

The book is out and available in stores everywhere.

Please visit my new site where all the posts here have been catalogued and new posts await you!

http://www.corymaclauchlin.com/

New Website

I started this blog when this book was nothing more than an idea. And now--with the release of the book weeks away and review copies being sent out, I thought it was time to get a full website going.

Please visit: www.corymaclauchlin.com

The new site will be growing over the next few weeks. I will continue to post updates and news. And, for those of you who can't get enough Toole, I will be posting information on Toole that I found out during my research--information not found in the book.
All the postings from this site are archived their as well.

Thank you for all your interest and support. I hope you visit http://www.corymaclauchlin.com/

Best,
Cory

New York City, 1959

Film Footage: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr--Harmony Bar & Restaurant--New York 1959

Between Mad Men, the new series Pan Am the 2010 film Howl and the upcoming film adaptation of On the Road, popular media has obviously taken a renewed interest in the late 1950s and early 60s. And what a remarkable time it was, especially in New York City. Fidel Castro eating ice cream at the Bronx Zoo--Nikita Khrushchev brandishing his shoe at the U.N. General Assembly and having a temper tantrum because the authorities would not permit him to go to Disneyland—and of course the Beats emerging from a cult status to becoming the literary voice of a generation.

Fred Kaplan authored an intriguing account of this year in history titled 1959: The Year Everything Changed. As evident in the title, he presents a bold thesis, but lines up such compelling events, from Allen Ginsberg’s triumphant reading at Columbia University to the recording of Kind of Blue, it is clear that this single year in history marked the beginning of the tidal changes of the mid and late 1960s.

To me, it is beyond coincidence that Toole was in New York during this time. In fact, because he taught across the street from the Soviet Embassy, he saw the comings and goings of Castro and Khrushchev in September of 1960.

It was around this period in New York that he started “sketching” what would become his famous character Ignatius Reilly. He would finish his novel in Puerto Rico—but there is no mistake that Ignatius was crafted in the heart of the social changes so evident at the turn of the decade in New York City.

And during this time Toole walked across the Columbia campus--from his dorm room to his classes at Philosophy Hall--everyday passing the School of Journalism--established by Joseph Pulitzer. In that same building over twenty years later (and eleven years after his suicide) the Pulitzer committee would gather with Toole’s novel in hand and award him the Pulitzer Prize.

Surely if I had my hands on a time machine, New York City between 1959 and 1961 would be at the top of my list.

Done with Copyedits

Earlier this week I got my first glance at the design of the book. It is quite exciting to see it coming together. Copy edits were finalized and today they started transferring the text into the designed pages.

On my last day of reviewing the copy edits I received an email from a past student of Toole's. She gave me the phone number of a woman who knew him. I had a lovely conversation with her. Although she did not know Toole very well, he went to several parties at her apartment in the French Quarter in 1967. Luckily, I included some of her memories in the manuscipt, which echoed many of the other stories about him I have documented.

We have also been working hard on the photo insert. It is shaping up quite nicely. I gave Joe Sanford a sneak peak at it and he commented: "Wonderful--It is a most beautiful photo essay of Ken's life."

Proofs will be coming next week. After that there is one last chance for any corrections and then we are off to print.

Moving on to Photos

This week my editor gave me an official response to the manuscript, which was better than I ever anticipated. With no major changes requested, we have moved on to securing rights for photos and quotes in the book. With wideranging sources, this is a tedious and time consuming task that is now going full speed.

However, I am finding the whole process of book publication quite fascinating. And while I am growing tired of scanning the 300+ pages of the manuscript to make sure I secure rights for quotes used...I am encouraged by a discussion going on about me writing a second book. Of course, that will have to be material for another blog--or info for my webpage once I get that fired up.

Moving Forward

This week I heard back from my publisher and we are moving forward with the book. Cover design is in the works and some edits will be coming, but it sounds like nothing drastic.

I stopped by Joel Fletcher's house today to drop off a copy of the manuscript. He had just made some sfoof (a delicious Lebanese cake with semolina, tumeric, pistachios and pinenuts). With a cup of dark Louisiana coffee, it was a perfect treat for a rainy day in Virginia.

I am looking forward to his comments on the manuscript. He has been with me through this whole process. It is hard to believe I have been working on this book for over four years now. And when I started out on this adventure I didn't expect to meet some of the most wonderful people I have ever known. I suppose in some ways I have Ken to thank for that, but in large part, Joel has been the bridge to many extraordinary people.

Stay tuned. In the next few months all the pieces will start coming together.

Manucript Submitted

After nearly five years of research and eight months of intense writing, rewriting and editing, I submitted the first draft of Butterfly in the Typewriter to my editor. Now I wait for my editor's review. This gives me some time to reflect on the book writing process.

When my agent first contacted me I remember restraining some enthusiasm for the project because, as I told him, I did not want him to think I was insanely obsessed with this subject. He calmly replied "Well you have to be obsessed with a subject to write a book about it." I didn't realize how true that was at the time. I asked myself frequently why I was doing this-- as my wife took on more of the burden at home and I no longer could let myself go in a moment. Even when I ate dinner the book was on my mind. In the last few weeks as my ever-looming deadline neared, food, what I consider one of the great joys in life, became bland.

Of course, I knew why I was writing the book. I felt it needed to be written. I was writing the book that I wanted to read, but couldn't find, five years ago. This was my guiding principle throughout this endeavor. I continually approached the book as a reader. Of course, other reasons came to light along the way, as I came to know friends and acquaintances of Toole and as I was drawn into the intrigue of the story.

Ever since I started on this project many people have mentioned in passing to me that they too havean idea for a book. And of course I have encouraged them. But before asking about book ideas, my first question would be, why do you think it needs to be written? It seems you need to have a vision of the thing from the beginning...and even then you need to be ready for it to turn out quite different from what you expect.

So several days ago, I hit the "submit" button and sent hundreds of pages of writing and research into digital space. There were no fireworks, no crowds cheering, no lines at my door waiting for my autograph. I didn't expect that response, nor do I expect it once this book is released. But perhaps I was not ready for that odd empty feeling, having handed off something I have labored over for so long. Toole expressed similar sentiments in a letter to Robert Gottlieb, when he essentially admits his novel has serious problems, but he was terrified that someone would actually point them out to him.

Perhaps unlike Toole, I welcome my editor's critique. With some distance I am already starting to rethink some sentences. I am getting more sleep. And I am slowly regaining my taste buds. Last night, for the first time in months, my wife and I enjoyed a lovely dinner. In fact...it was the first time I ever ordered a steak at a restaurant. It was delicious!

Film now available

As of today you can view the entire documentary John Kennedy Toole: The Omega Point at the following website:

http://www.jktoole.com/viewthefilm.html

Just follow the directions at the top and voila!

The filmmaker, Joe Sanford, has a longer version in the works and would appreciate any feedback you have to offer.

Of course, I will forward him any comments posted here related to the film. Hope you enjoy!

Just in from New Orleans

I have just returned from New Orleans. It was my last research trip before I complete the manuscript and send it off to the publisher. There were many wonderful events that happened this past week.

On Monday I had lunch with the Dominican Sisters that once ran Dominican College (pictured above) where Toole taught the last few years of his life. Thanks to Karen at Loyola for giving me a tour of the old college and for the special access to the cupola--offering a rare view of New Orleans.

I recovered some great material at University of Lousiana at Lafayette and his old high school, dove back into the Toole papers at Tulane one last time and met with one of his previous students.

But the highlight of the trip was meeting the sister of Toole's best friend. She has so many lovely stories of Toole that speak to his lively personality and his development as a writer. Best of all, we got her to sit for a recorded interview that will be added to the film.

Many thanks to all of the wonderful people in Louisiana that have welcomed me and supported my research. I expect the next time I am down there will be to promote the book after publication

I will begin reading the manuscript through "cover to cover," as it is intended, by the end of this week.

How many words?

I emerge from my cave to say....

The finished manuscript is set for nearly 95,000 words. Out of interest I tallied up the words I have so far in the "finished chapters" and I was at 70,000. I can't say they are all golden words, but it is 70,000 words of edited language that I consider good. I have volumes of discarded language--no reason to count that.

I wish I could say it has been one flash of genius after another. But like most writers in a project of this size I go through moments of great exhiliration, feeling that I am writing something original and worthwhile. At times I feel like I am reading the book that I wanted to read when I was searching for a good biography of Toole four years ago. And then at other times I doubt and question every choice I make. Why did I use that image? Am I going to far in my interpretation? Should I restrain myself or should I give more?

But with over 2/3 of the book more or less ready to be submitted, I at least have some sense that this project is survivable.

Ah--I have breathed the fresh air too long. Back to my cave...

Reading and Film Screening

I will be reading from the manuscript for Butterfly in the Typewriter and screening the documentary film, John Kennedy Toole: The Omega Point at Germanna Community College--Fredericksburg Area Campus at 7 pm this Thursday evening, February 17th. There will be a question and answer period following the event where I will answer questions on the process of securing a literary agent and getting a book deal. Please come!

Great Start to the New Year

The holidays were filled with hours and hours of writing and editing. Through those hours I dove deep, a depth from which I have yet to emerge....hopefully I won't emerge until this manuscript is complete. The feeling is hard to explain other than to say it is difficult to think of anything else. Even as I carry on with my day, cooking dinner, doing dishes, attending meetings, preparing syllabi, the book buzzes about in the back of my mind.

Perhaps it is because over the break I began the chapter on Toole's suicide, the chapter I fear most. I feel the heavy responsibility of telling the story of another man's life, but to tell the story of Toole's suicide shakes my nerves. I will, of course, carry on with the duty. It is arguably the most intriguing part of the story. But I am determined to not let his suicide cast a shadow over the book.

And as I pondered his darkest hours, I gained access to a letter from Toole that had likely not been read since 1963. It is a letter written right before he started writing the novel in Puerto Rico. It is a good beginning to the new year.

Happy Birthday Ken

Toole was born this day in 1937 in New Orleans. His mother called him her "Beauteous Babe."

I have spent the day thinking about Toole's time in New York City. Thanks to my May trip to Columbia and having the opportunity to see the dorm room in which he lived in 1958, I was able to identify some of the old photographs in the Toole Papers at Tulane.

It has been a good day, pondering a time when he had the world in front of him--nothing but opportunity, potential and talent.

Cheers to you Ken!

Two more chapters down--almost

I am making steady progress. I finished two more chapters this month. I focused on Toole's days at Tulane and his first year at Columbia. I am quite excited about the Tulane chapter, wherein, I think I have contributed insight into his intellectual foundations as a writer and a satirist.

I am two steps closer to portraying him as the complex individual that he was--as opposed to a caricature of a suicidal artist. Of course, I will need to make some corrections and additions as I have several more intereviews lined up that will probably give me some quality material for those chapters.

Today I begin on the chapter focused on his year in Cajun country. This is when he met his primary inspiration for Ignatius Reilly and two of his truest friends, Patricia Rickels and Joel Fletcher. I need to hammer out two more chapters before the first of the year to say on schedule for my July deadline. So far, with much dedication, all goes well.

On Writing

Over Thanksgiving, as there was much chatter about the book deal, one of my cousins asked me about the writing process. How do you go about writing a book, he asked. Of course I had to clarify if he meant the whole business part of securing an agent, then a publisher, coming up with a marketing platform and so on, or if he meant the actual writing of the book. He meant the actual writing part.

Indeed, it seems everyone has a great idea for a book, but it’s just that damn writing part that is so difficult to get around. Well, I am in the midst of writing my first book, so I am no expert. But I can say for myself that writing rarely involves some mystical moment where inspiration wells from my inner soul and on to the paper—or in this case the laptop screen.

As far as I can tell, there is no secret to writing. You just have to write, edit and rewrite, over and over again, until you get it the way you want it. Of course, there are those virtuosos that crank out pages of brilliance in minutes, but they are rare. And I assure you, for the most part, the thousands of writers out there right now hacking away at their keyboards are not tapped into some great spirit of composition.

I like the Philip Roth approach. I write and rewrite every day. It is hard. It takes time. But eventually you figure out what you want to say and the perfect way to say it. And for many writers that achievement gives greater satisfaction than publication, as it should.

Book Deal!

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. I recently returned from New Orleans where we had two screenings of the documentary, one at Loyola with a lively audience. I met with Bunt Percy, the wife of Walker Percy, and her daughter. I had a drink at the Sazerac Bar where Toole met some friends, just before beginning the novel. I had the good fortune of strolling through the French Quarter with my dear friend, as well as Toole’s friend, Joel Fletcher. And many thanks to Joe Sanford for putting me up in the studio, driving me around and taking me out to the Gulf Coast, a long overdue trip.

But best of all, a few hours after my plane landed in New Orleans, my agent called. We have a book deal with Da Capo Press for the biography of John Kennedy Toole. Now I am writing, writing, writing. The tentative date for release is spring 2012!

Beyond Freud

Over the last few weeks the topic of suicides related to bullying has made headline news. And in many of these cases the bullying focused on the perceived sexuality of the victim. These recent tragedies bring to mind the many people that believe Toole was driven to suicide because of his repressed sexual identity. There is no clear indication that Toole was being bullied; however, one might argue that a society intolerant of homosexuality, forcing and trapping many people in the proverbial closet, is a society of bullies.

But the fact is, Toole is not here to tell us his tale and what he left behind offers nothing definitive that suggests his sexual preference. Several publishers have requested that I address the topic and so in the book I give a full explanation of my take on the issue, surveying and weighing the testimonies I have collected in my research.

I comment on the topic here in brief. I have come across many people that are quick to label him as a gay writer, many people that did not know him. And I suppose they think somehow by doing this they make a case for the dangers of repressed sexuality, while attempting to demonstrate the contribution that talented gay and lesbian people make to our world every day. But I also presume “outing” someone against their wishes and without any substantial evidence is quite taboo within the gay community, let alone simply insensitive. And despite the seemingly inclusive spirit in which this label is placed on Toole, isn’t it similar to what we now understand bullies do in schools and businesses across the nation?

Alas, this seems the fate of a writer that never had a chance to shape his legacy. Perhaps he attempted to shape his legacy in his final letter to his mother. But she destroyed it, leaving the questions surrounding his death a mystery. Her destruction of the letter may have been out of grief, but it was also her first step in molding the story that she wanted. And it seems to me others have continued that tradition of molding his story for specific ends. Perhaps identifying Toole as latently homosexual gives readers what they want out of Toole today--an explanation of his suicide that speaks to contemporary society. Indeed, many people have tried to own his story. But no one owns it, except him. And thankfully, the contributions of Joel Fletcher and Joe Sanford demonstrate that crucial balance between honesty and sensitivity that anyone telling the life story of another person must have.

I fully understand my role in this tradition. I am in the process of telling his story. Hopefully, I will not be the last. I expect people will be reading his novel for generations to come. They too will be plagued by the same questions we ask today. Who was John Kennedy Toole? How did he create such a brilliant work of humor? And what lead him to take his own life?

But I wonder if 100 years from now our society will still be consumed with questions of sexual identity and sexual expression. I wonder if these questions will still hold such a grasp on our social discourse. And if not, if we have somehow moved on to other questions, other ways to understand our selves, will we also ask different questions about the lives of people that left behind such mysteries? In doing so we might find we need very different answers.

We are close

We are getting closer to a deal. Hopefully there will be good news to report soon.

In the meantime I have made contact with many people that graduated with Toole from Columbia in 1959. It is amazing to see how one class of graduates can go in so many different directions. They have helped me construct a picture of Columbia from 1958-1969. As I write this chapter, I am coming to realize the importance of New York in this story.

Updates

The documentary on Toole has been accepted to the New Orleans Film Festival. Congratulations to Joe Sanford! I will be attending. It will be a chance to hang out with Joe, someone who has become a close friend in this endeavor. Hopefully Joel Fletcher will be joining us as well. He has talked about doing a Toole walk through the French Quarter for years. Perhaps this will be the year!

While in New Orleans, I will be doing more research. I received a call from the owner of the Toole House, the last place Toole lived before he went on his final journey. The owner of the home has invited me to come visit the house. It will be quite interesting to walk Toole's last steps as he departed from his mother's home and his beloved city.

The Mallord Mystery Continues

Dear Daniel,
Thank you for your comment and your research. You are right that the Tulane Catalog lists the inscription dated January 30, 1969. But the actual inscription appears to have both dates. “20” appears to have been inscribed over “30.” It seems almost too coincidental that someone would have revised the date to correspond with the day that Toole left New Orleans, but there it is. The pen and penmanship appears similar to the rest of the note. And because this inscription includes the line “universal oneness with you and Shelley” which Mallord also wrote in a letter to philosopher Bertrand Russell, I am confident that the inscription is his.

You bring up a great point that this could be self-promotion. In fact, someone placed a newspaper ad for the book on the inscription page with the date 2-2-69 written on the ad. But the February date looks similar to Thelma Toole’s handwriting. So it seems possible, and perhaps even likely, that Mallord and Toole never met. However, I find it intriguing that a young poet, likely based in the Quarter, would seek out an Uptown professor at a small catholic college to help promote his book. And this certainly speaks to the space between Toole, perhaps the most famous New Orleans novelist, and the bohemian artists living in the quarter during the late 60s.

I have contacted one Richard Mallord Silverman in New York who replied to say that he was not the Mallord I sought.

____________________________________________________________


Idiosyncrat said...
Dear Cory:

The fact that the copy is inscribed to "Mr. Toole" certainly augurs against even a passing friendship between the two. If the Tulane Web site's cited reference is correct, the book was actually inscribed on the 30th, not the 20th-- suggesting that it was merely mailed to Toole's New Orleans residence, not presented in person.

Might it not be that Toole had never met Mallord, and that the latter somehow knew that the former was, or had been, an English instructor, and that the latter merely sent the copy of his book to the former to promote it? If he used basically the same inscription to send a copy to a famous intellectual whom he presumably had never met, it strikes me as doubtful that the inscription to Toole would imply any necessary relationship between him and Mallord.

I ran Mallord's full name through the Social Security Death Index, and it came up with no results. Unless he left the country and died abroad, it seems likely that he is still alive. Running the name through Intellius.com and Peoplefinders.com, there is no listing for that full name; but, unsurprisingly, there are quite a few Richard M. Silvermans. There are only a few, however, who would seem old enough to be a good candidate for Mallord. One is 71, which would have made him thirtyish in January 1969. The other two are 82 and 86, which would have made them in their forties already-- which strikes me as older than the photographed Mallord appears!?!

I believe that the 71 year old is a real estate agent and landlord, with an N.Y.U. degree in Management and Marketing: http://www.bellmarc.com/agents/profile.asp?id=SIL. That seems like an unlikely match-- but, then again, look what happened to Jerry Rubin, after his Yippie days!?! If nothing else, it might be worth your contacting that Richard M. Silverman to see if he has any knowledge of Richard Mallord Silverman. F.W.I.W. Good luck! I look forward to the book....



Sincerely yours,

/s/ Dan Hand

Daniel Kevin Hand, B.A., M.S., M.B.A., J.D.

DKHand@gmail.com

6/27/10 @ 5:00 a.m. E.D.T. :: 4:00 a.m. C.D.T.