In June
1997, Joyce and I were going through some changes while I was reading Mary’s
final novel, Falkner. As I’ve
mentioned, I had retired from my thirty-year public-school teaching career in
January. Joyce’s mother had died on February 5, 1995, after a long, long battle with Alzheimer’s. Joyce had
recently published a book about her mom—In
a Tangled Wood, which appeared in 1996. Our son had recently graduated from
college and had begun his career as a journalist at the Akron Beacon-Journal. And we were beginning to realize that we
wanted to move back to nearby Hudson, Ohio, where we’d lived most of our marriage.
So our old house (1826) in Aurora was now for sale—yes, the “bat house” I wrote
about the other day. Joyce had already found another century home she liked
near Hudson’s “downtown”; we are still living there as I write this (April
2017). I’ve loved the place, too.
And in June
1997 I was charging ahead with my work on Mary Shelley—had even contacted an
agent about representing me. I was inflated with confidence because of recent
successes in publishing—an annotated edition of The Call of the Wild (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995) and a YA
biography (Jack London: A Biography,
Scholastic Press, 1997). Both had been well reviewed. I thought that surely some YA publisher would be
interested in a biography of the woman who wrote Frankenstein! And surely
eager literary agents would queue up to battle one another for the opportunity
to represent me!
Uh … no.
Scholastic
Press was not interested—though they did ask if there was anyone else I’d like to write about. I said no.
Good-bye, Scholastic, who by then had found some unknown writer by the name of J.
K. Rowling, whose books would sell moderately well. I did eventually find a literary agency—a good one—to represent me.
And I kept them informed as I proceeded through my research. Then—out of the
blue (to coin a phrase)—as I was about to commence writing, the agency decided
they were no longer interested. I’m not sure why. But I do know that I have wished them ill the past twenty years.
I just this
moment checked Google. The agency is still in business. So my maledictions and
malevolence have not had the desired effect. I will not mention the name.
But they seem to be flourishing … whereas I …
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