Dear Livejournal Genie

[lapsedmodernist]

1. Does anyone have a copy of Louise Gluck's poem "For Jane Meyers"? I want it and it seems to have disappeared off the Internets.

2. I am blanking on the name of the guy who perpetrated my favorite literary hoax in history. He started a rumor of a fictional book supposedly written by a former British military colonial official of his time in India-- a memoir of "lust" and such. The hoax was so succesful that the book was banned by numerous organizations and became the #1 bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list--and it didn't exist! What was the name of the guy? Please help!

Thank you

anthrochica

Comments

[yanatonage.livejournal.com]

Borgesian in scope, I'm sure the book now exists, and its legacy will outlive us all

[yanatonage.livejournal.com]

But, no, I have no idea who that guy is.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

it actually does, sort of, b/c after he revealed the hoax to either the NYT or the WSJ editor, they cowrote a book ABOUT the hoax that had the same title as the apocryphal book.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

I, Libertine, by Frederick Eewing. Theodore Sturgeon later wrote it. I'll ook around for Gluck, who used to teach at Employing U. More soon.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Somehow I suspected that the livejournal genie would act through you on this one.

Yes, of course, I, Libertine. Now I remember. Somehow I had blocked out two crucial things about it: the title and the fact that I learned about it while reading up on the guy who wrote "The Christmas Story" which I had just watched for the first time and absolutely loved.

orpheusinhades posted the Gluck below. I did not know she used to teach at EU! I was actually hunting around for it because I wanted to write a post on the subject of our lunch discussion, mortality and the John Yau poem, because that Gluck poem had a similar effect on me once upon a time, although with a different affect/shading.

Also I found myself talking about a Ray Bradbury story today, which I think resonated with me for the same reason, it also haunts me, sort of. It's "Fire and Ice" from one of his short story collections; maybe "R is for Rocket." do you know it?

[todfox.livejournal.com]

"Fire and Ice" is one of my favorite Bradbury stories. It haunts me too. The people living their short lives. I've always felt like the ending was a bit of a cop-out -- the love birds escaping their fate. The two parts that haunt me the most, for some reason, are the scientists who spend their whole week trying to expand the work of those who came before, and their contrast the reckless sportsmen...

[todfox.livejournal.com]

And thanks, I can't believe this bookseller didn't know about I, Libertine!

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

I want it and it seems to have disappeared off the Internets.

Not quite disappeared.

For Jane Meyers
Sap rises from the sodden ditch
and glues two green ears to the dead birch twig.
Perilous beauty-
and already Jane is digging out
her colored tennis shoes,
5
one mauve, one yellow, like large crocuses.
And by the laundromat
the Bartletts in their tidy yard-
as though it were not
wearying, wearying
10
to hear in the bushes
the mild harping of the breeze,
the daffodils flocking and honking-
Look how the bluet falls apart, mud
pockets the seed.
15
Months, years, then the dull blade of the wind.
It is spring! We are going to die!
And now April raises up her plaque of flowers
and the heart
expands to admit its adversary.
20
Louise Gluck

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!

[already2late.livejournal.com]

You should really read Peter Carey's My Life as a Fake... it's fiction about literary hoaxes. I went through a lit hoax phase a couple of years ago. Read this, Stephen Glass's [pseudo]novel, etc.