A Book Publisher's Incomplete Name

There was a New York publishing house called Four Walls Eight Windows. That name always sounded incomplete to me. How about Four Walls Eight Windows and One Door?

An Omnivorous Reader

In his online New York Times obituary (June 14, 2023), Robert Gottlieb, the noted book and magazine editor (Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf; The New Yorker), was reported to have said that in his teens he read War and Peace by Tolstoy in one day and Proust's  Remembrance of Things Past, described in the obituary as a "monumental" work, in one week.

As a boy, Gottlieb told the Times in a 1980 article, "I would read three to four books a day after school, and could read for 16 hours at a time. Mind you, that's all I did. I belonged to three lending libraries and the public library."

The title of his 2016 memoir, Avid Reader: A Life, which I read and thoroughly enjoyed, is an apt description of his reading habits as a child and as an adult.

Another Use For Rejection Letters

We've all heard stories about writers who've received enough rejection letters from publishing houses to paper a wall. Well, there's a better use for these carriers of bad news.

A useful suggestion was found in an article by a very prolific writer named George Haddad-Garcia. He wrote an article for Writer's Digest (July 1982) that listed thirty cost-cutting ideas for writers. The one I especially liked was number ten: "Scratch pads are often free at hotels and motels; don't overlook these, either. The backs of rejection letters can be used for scratch, jotting down ideas, notes, phone numbers, or for rough drafts."

So those annoying rejection letters not only can make you more determined to succeed as a writer, they can be turned over to the blank side and used to help you create the next award-winning novel or short story collection (you hope).

Magazines For Writers Are Finally Acknowledging Writers Of Color

From the 1970s to the early 2000s, when I subscribed to Writer's Digest magazine, the only black writer I can remember seeing on the cover was Alex Haley of Roots fame. In all that time I never saw any articles about black writers or other writers of color in its pages. It was as if  other writers of color like John A. Williams, Amy Tan, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Ernest Gaines didn't exist.

I recently resumed my subscription to Writer's Digest (no longer a monthly; it is now published every two months). I was delighted to see writers of color like Zadie Smith and Viet Thanh Nguyen featured as well as an article about Patrice Caldwell, a young black literary agent.

Finally, Writer's Digest and other writing magazines have ceased ignoring writers, editors, and literary agents of color in their pages.

An Emerging Writer Isn't Always Someone Young

 In the November/December 2020 issue of Poets & Writers, you will find the 5th Annual 5 Over 50 profiles of writers age 50 plus who have published a debut book.

I just started my subscription so I was unaware of this annual acknowledgment until now even though I've read Poets & Writers for several years off and on. Somehow I missed those previous 5 Over 50 profiles.

Nevertheless, I was happy to see them. Usually it's a celebration of writers under 30 or under 40 who get most of the ink.

Finally, the 50 plus demographic, of which I'm a member--AARP's constituency--are getting some respect from the literary community, who have been too youth-obsessed when it comes to first-time authors.

As the editors at Poets & Writers have rightly pointed out, " 'new' and 'emerging' are not synonymous with 'young.' "

Can I get an "Amen" to that?

A Future Science Fiction Writer's Early Beginning

 Writer's Digest in the September 1967 issue published the names of the winners of its Short Story Contest. One hundred and ninety-nine names were selected in five prize categories (plus one Special Award winner).

Looking over the list of names, I spotted one that caught me by surprise--Octavia E. Butler of Pasadena, California. She was the 63rd person of 99 to win Fifth Prize. (Each Fifth Prize winner received a Sheaffer pen and pencil set inscribed with their winning entry).

Butler's fellow winners are long forgotten but she went on to literary fame garnering several science fiction awards as well as a MacArthur "Genius" fellowship.

I would love to know the title and subject matter of her winning short story so I can track it down and read it. Has it been anthologized? Is there a biography of Octavia Butler that identifies this story? It is that story that was the beginning of her literary career. Getting it recognized without doubt spurred her on to continue writing stories and later novels.

J.D. Salinger's Unpublished Work

I heard the following report regarding the unpublished work of the reclusive writer J.D. Salinger, author of the classic novel Catcher in the Rye, on New York's WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty, that was broadcast on February 3, 2019.

CBS News's Gary Nunn reported that Salinger's son told him that "his father wrote reams of work no one has ever seen. J.D. Salinger, who died nine years ago," continued Nunn, "apparently never stopped writing. Next to every chair the writer had a notebook. According to Matt Salinger, his father teemed with ideas and thoughts, saying that he'd be driving in the car, pull over to jot some ideas ** and at times he would chuckle to himself."

"No indication when the unpublished work will be released, but, "concluded Nunn, "his son says all that his father wrote will be shared."

No doubt that is very good news to Salinger's legion of fans.


**This reminded me of the re-enacted scene in the 13-part public television poetry series, Voices & Visions, that showed William Carlos Williams, a pediatrician, pulling his car over to the side of the road while between house calls, removing a prescription pad from his black bag and, with fountain pen in hand, scribbling a poem.

A Letter To A Book Editor

The following letter, dated July 13, 2015, was sent to Jennifer Brehl, an editor at HarperCollins. She replaced Charlotte Abbott, the editor who acquired Fighting Words for Avon Books in 1997. Fighting Words is an anthology of essays by black gay men that I edited. It was published in 1999. At the time of the acquisition,  Avon Books was owned by the Hearst Corporation. It was later sold to HarperCollins, which is part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.


Jennifer Brehl, Editor
HarperCollins Publishers
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007

Dear Jennifer:

On January 9, 2015, you left me a voice mail message in which you stated that the outline I submitted for a book about the gay and lesbian aspect of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s was turned down. The reasons given were that the sales for Fighting Words "were not as robust as we'd like to see" and that the outline was "not right for William Morrow [a HarperCollins imprint] at this time.We're not doing as much of that type of nonfiction paperback original."

I want to point out that despite Fighting Words's lack of "robust sales," it has been cited in the endnotes of other books. In fact, the late author E. Lynn Harris included Donald K. Jackson's essay, "The Letter," in the anthology he edited called Freedom in This Village.

Also, the Copyright Clearance Center has sent me requests from professors at such places as Dartmouth for permission to make copies of essays from the book for distribution and use in their classrooms.

Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) not too long ago had an exhibition at the Schomburg Center in Harlem to commemorate the 20th or 25th anniversary of the organization. I was very pleased to see a copy of Fighting Words in a display case featuring other books with a GMAD connection. A few GMAD members, among them Robert E. Penn and Kevin McGruder, were contributors to my anthology.

So you see, even though Fighting Words was not a big seller, it has made an impact in other ways.

Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith

Note: I neglected to mention in the letter that Fighting Words was one of the nominees for the 1999 Lambda Literary Award in the Anthologies/Nonfiction category.

The "Hidden Figures" Book Proposal

Entertainment Weekly (December 30, 2016/January 6, 2017 Double Issue) reports that Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of the New York Times Bestseller Hidden Figures, a non-fiction book about four black female NASA mathematicians, wrote a "55-page book proposal for Figures [that] eventually made the rounds in Hollywood and caught the attention of [film director Theodore] Melfi."

I'm sure there are budding writers and a few long-time pros who would love to see Ms. Shetterly's book proposal in print so they can study it and learn how to write a winning proposal that lures literary agents, book editors, and possibly Hollywood directors.

On New Yorker Cartoons

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this: at the bottom of the table of contents in each issue of The New Yorker, the cartoonists are listed in the order of appearance in its pages.

P.S. The New Yorker has the funniest, cleverest, and most thought-provoking cartoons that are worth clipping and saving or sharing with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others.

A Dearth Of Black Gay Books

Voice of the People
New York Daily News
450 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001

December 13, 2000

Dear Editor:

In Paul D. Colford's recent article on the burgeoning African-American book market, one editor at Doubleday was quoted as saying "there's probably room for still more imprints." I would agree, particularly as it pertains to those in the black community who are either gay or lesbian. As the editor of an anthology of essays by black gay men, which was published last year, I can attest to the dearth of books in this category.

The publishing industry may finally be coming to the realization that black folks buy and read books but there is still an ignorance of the need for books, fiction and nonfiction, that reflect the diversity of black gay men, many of whom are well-educated and have disposable incomes.

Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith

The above letter-to-the-editor was not published.

The Power of Ink

"Printers Ink is the Greater Explosive." (Written on a framed painting.)--from Ferlinghetti: The Artist in His Time by Barry Silesky (Warner Books, 1990) [Biography of Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.]