Self-Publishing. Living Life As A Writer. Steinbeck And Toole On Writing.

blog post #43 by Science Fiction Author Clara Bush

As I mentioned in blog post #38, Pulitzer Prize winning author, John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969), committed suicide at the age of thirty-one. Publishers rejected his novels during his life time.

Toole’s rejection—given by Simon & Schuster’s senior editor, Robert Gottlieb, went like this:

“…with all its wonderfulnesses, the book—even better plotted (and still better plotable)—does not have a reason; it’s a brilliant exercise in invention, but unlike CATCH [22] and MOTHER KISSES and V and the others, it isn’t really about anything. And that’s something no one can do anything about.”

One would think with the word “wonderfulnesses” as a descriptor, Toole would have no problem finding a publisher. However, his award-winning novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, was published posthumously.

His mother, Thelma Toole, grieved for two years after his suicide and then busied herself finding a publisher. Over a period of five years, she sent it to seven publishers, all rejected the manuscript. Then in 1978, nine years after her son’s death, she pursued author Walker Percy until he surrendered to her numerous phone calls, letters, and final plea—she pushed her way into his office and demanded he read the manuscript. He expected it to be bad. Instead, he commented:

In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a prickle of interest, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity; surely it was not possible that it was so good.

Though the road to publication took another three years, A Confederacy of Dunces attracted literary interest and in 1981 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Toole’s novel sold more than 1.5 million copies and has been translated into 18 languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole

(The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Louisiana State University Press, or the cover artist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces)

The Power Of One

It took only one—one, someone—who admired Toole’s novel for it to find success.

Today’s Golden Oreo

Rainbow Aquatic Park in San Francisco. ©August2014 fototaker.net

“If the story is not about the hearer he will not listen.

And here I make a rule—

a great and interesting story is about everyone

or it will not last.”

—John Steinbeck (1902-1968) East of Eden

Gottlieb’s rejection of Toole’s novel was based on his claim that the story: “isn’t really about anything.”

If we follow Steinbeck’s advice, then we make our stories about everyone. Perhaps, then we find our one.

Think This Is Wrong?

Examine some of today’s best sellers. Though they are not necessarily considered well-written in the literary sense, they have appeal.

Twilight by Stephanie Myers: The appeal—Teenagers looking for love in all the wrong places including Vampires and Werewolves. What teen doesn’t look for love? And the more forbidden, the more appealing.
Fifty Shades by EL James: The appeal—Women’s unrealized sexual fantasies, or sexual fantasies they never even imagined, played out on the pages of a book all safe and private.
Divergent by Veronica Roth: The appeal—Being different, not fitting into an accepted norm.
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: The all time appeal—Fighting against injustice.

Steinbeck’s great literary masterpieces found audiences among the working class and echoed opposition to such civil injustices as racism, loneliness, and treatment of the mentally ill, this in turn, brought to the forefront an individual’s battle for personal independence.

This may not be everyone, but it is many.

Alone

©July2014 fototaker.net

“In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplainable.

And sometimes if he is very fortunate and if the time is right,

a very little of what he is trying to do

trickles through.”

– John Steinbeck,

Journals of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters

Spider Image on Pixabay

by Bellezza87

http://pixabay.com/en/cobweb-spider-insect-nature-261659/

The Science Fiction Reality blog is a little science, a little fiction, a little about writing, and a lot of real.

Author
Recent Posts

Join Me

Clara Bush

Clara is creator of the popular Science Fiction novellas, "The Creep Mesquite Anthology." It's SyFy with monsters and a little romance, available on Amazon Kindle.

Join Me

Latest posts by Clara Bush (see all)

Hell Town RV Park, Episode 51: A Free Web Serial. - December 7, 2019
Hell Town RV Park, Episode 50. A Free Web Serial. - November 21, 2019
Hell Town RV Park, Episode 49. A Free Web Serial. - November 3, 2019