The fact that Gordon Lish was also my editor and teacher made it a little bit uncomfortable for me to see this much intimacy between a writer and an editor when I was myself attempting to do great things in my writing with the man as well.
Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life by Carol Sklenicka; Hardcover, 592 pages; Published November 24th 2009 by Scribner (first published September 8th 2009); Original title: Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life; ISBN: 074326245X (ISBN13: 9780743262453)
I had stayed away up to this point in my life from the works of Raymond Carver and any study made of him. I had even discounted him a little because I had visited the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana back in 1996 and saw for myself the correspondence and marked-up manuscripts of Raymond Carver in his relationship to his editor Gordon Lish. The fact that Lish was also my editor and teacher made it a little bit uncomfortable for me to see this much intimacy between a writer and an editor when I was myself attempting to do great things in my writing with the man as well. I felt, prior to my own study, as though Lish did way too much for Carver to make him the man of letters he became. I did not want that type of relationship with Lish. And I didn’t have that, nor do I have it now. Lish has marked up manuscripts of mine, corrected grammar and spelling, and offered suggestions from time to time, but never has he written anything for me nor cut anything so severely as he cut the Carver manuscript for WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE.
I avoided RAYMOND CARVER: A Writer’s Life when it first came out because I figured the author Carol Sklenicka had a bone to pick with Gordon Lish. Not true at all. She did a very fine job of reporting here. There is abundant information about the importance of so many people involved with the career and life of Raymond Carver. I especially liked the book because of all the notations and anecdotes about Gordon Lish. I borrowed a copy from my local library and loved it so much I went out and found a few copies to purchase of first printings of the hardcover edition because I believe the book will only grow in importance the more Carver is studied, not to mention Gordon Lish. And for the record, I have since immersed myself in everything Raymond Carver and now maintain, in regards to short stories, that he is our GOAT.
I bought this in first edition, hardback and put it on the shelf for the same exact reason. I feel like it needed to sit for a decade before I read it.