2. In his well-researched book Venus Bound, John de St. Jorre names me as the translator of O. Though he is not absolutely sure, he says that if “money were to be wagered I would place mine unequivocally on the Seavers [meaning me and Jeannette].” I say: John, if you can break the code of the author’s name and that of the translator, you will know for certain the identity of both.
49. Grove Goes Public
1. In today’s terms, one should multiply by roughly five or six.
2. By “no-brainer” I refer to the contents of the craniums of those brokers who, without doing their homework, were still recommending the stock at that point.
50. Genet Comes to America
1. Actually, when finally released, the FBI file on Genet ran to more than five hundred pages.
51. The 1968 Convention
1. Rosica Colin, Jean’s longtime literary agent.
2. A bad pun, but one that delighted Genet. Because of his daily matinal door knocks, we said he reminded us of a (bad) American joke series, namely, the antique “knock, knock” jokes. The pun here is on Genet’s name and the similar-sounding French verb, gêner, literally to embarrass or inconvenience. Thus, “Ne vous gênez pas,” which freely translates as “Be my guest” or, in this instance, “Come right in.”
3. John Berendt remembers the moment quite differently and, alas, far less romantically. He recalls pressing Genet against the wall and shouting to the cop, “Stop! He’s an old man! Don’t!” And he didn’t.
52. And Now for My Fee
1. True to his word, Jean did come back a year and a half later, in March 1970, and involved himself deeply in the Black Panther movement.
2. Later Genet’s agent, Rosica Colin, told me, however, that she had received, on Jean’s behalf, a portion of the fee agreed upon for the second piece, together with a standard rejection letter.
54. Fur, Leather, and Machine Workers, Arise
1. “More-or-less” because at Grove some of the editors who were considered full-time worked part-time at their request, and some worked partly at home because of domestic needs. In short, in keeping with its liberal practices of the past, in its new, larger incarnation it did its best to accommodate its employees’ personal schedules. Another tactical error, for that effort at accommodation, in retrospect, was barely, if at all, appreciated.
Acknowledgments
I thank my invaluable friends Jill Jakes, Joanne Turnbull, Dan Okrent, Toby and Dan Talbot, and Steven Lipstitz for generously taking the time to read the nine-hundred-plus manuscript pages of Dick’s memoir. Your important notes helped and encouraged me at a time when it was most needed. Leon Friedman, thank you for stepping in with your sound advice, shepherding Dick’s manuscript into the publishing world and astutely targeting the right publisher. I can’t imagine a better place than Farrar, Straus and Giroux for Dick’s writing. Jonathan Galassi, your enthusiasm, high standards, and devotion made my and Dick’s dream come true. Thank you. I very much enjoyed our collaboration, Sean McDonald. Your excellent editorial hand made all the difference in how the book was shaped. A big hug to Charlotte Strick for creating such a happy book cover. And to Abby Kagan, who had in earlier days worked with Dick at Holt; this serendipitous reunion of designing Dick’s book turned the whole experience into something quite special. Nathalie, Alex, and Nicholas, without your love and unwavering support—editorial and otherwise—the task of editing the work of one of the best editors would never have happened. To all, thank you.
INDEX
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Abbey, John
Ablard, Charles
Académie Française
Act Without Words I
Adamov, Arthur
Adolphe (Constant)
Affluent Society, The (Galbraith)
Agnès de rien (film)
Air France, RS hired to teach English to stewardesses
Alberts, David
Allard, Paule
Alleg, Henri
Allen, Donald
Alvarez, A.
Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen
America (steamship)
America as a Civilization (Lerner)
American Field Service fellowship
American Friends Service Committee
American School, Paris
American Youth Hostels
Anouilh, Jean
Antonioni, Michelangelo
Apollinaire, Guillaume
Arcade Publishing
Architectural Record (magazine)
Arden, John
Arrabal, Fernando
Arrault, Monsieur (printer)
Artaud, Antonin
Artists in Residence (AIRs)
Asher, Aaron
Auch, Lord
Auschwitz
Autobiography of Malcolm X, The
Automobile Graveyard, The (Arrabal)
Ayer, A. J.
Aymé, Marcel
Bair, Deirdre
Baird, Denny
Baker, Bud
Balcomb, John
Balcony, The (Genet)
Baldwin, James
Baraka, Amiri
Barnacle, Nora
Barnes, Clive
Barral, Carlos
Bataille, Georges
Baudelaire, Charles
Beach, Sylvia
Beardsley, Aubrey
Beckett, John (cousin of Samuel)
Beckett, Samuel: addenda to Watt; approached about writing TV screenplays; attends baseball game; begins writing in English again; and Brendan Behan; comparison with James Joyce; comparison with Joseph Conrad; connection to James Joyce; declines to translate his work into English; difficulty finding publisher for Watt; in Evergreen Review; and Film; follows RS from Grove to Viking; and Formentor Prize; forgoes advance for Watt publication; as golfer; as Grove Press author; output after decision to write in French; personal manner; as poet; rights issues; RS’s initial efforts to contact; RS’s initial interest in; RS’s view of his work; RS translates French-language works of; RS translates “Le calmant”; RS writes piece about in Merlin; sends letter welcoming RS to Grove; unexpectedly delivers Watt manuscript to RS; WORKS: Eleuthéria; Endgame; Happy Days; How It Is; Krapp’s Last Tape; “La fin”; “Le calmant”; “L’expulsé”; L’innommable; Mercier and Camier; More Pricks Than Kicks; Murphy; “Suite”; “Texte pour Rien”; see also Malone Dies; Molloy; Waiting for Godot; Watt
Beckett, Suzanne (wife of Samuel)
Behan, Brendan
Bellows, Phyllis
Belmont, Georges
Berendt, John, and 1968 Democratic convention
Berlitz School
Bernanos, Georges
Berne, Eric
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Big Table (magazine)
Black Cat, Grove mass-market book line
Black Diaries of Roger Casement, The
Black Muslims
Black Panthers
Blacks, The (Genet)
Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon)
Black Spring (Miller)
“Black Writer and the New Censorship, The” (Lester)
black writers
Blin, Roger
Blum, Léon
Bonjour tristesse (Sagan)
Bonnell, Linc
book clubs
Book Find Club
Book-of-the-Month Club
bookstores: Eighth Street Bookshop, New York City; English Bookshop, Paris; Gallimard Bookstore, Paris; Librairie Mistral, Paris; Phoenix Bookshop, New York City
Booth, George
Bordas (publisher)
Borges, Jorge Luis
Bourdin, Paul
Bourel, Monsieur
Bowles, Patrick: background; Beckett’s view; first mentions Alex Trocchi to
RS; and Genet’s The Thief’s Journal; and initial Merlinite Watt reading; as Merlinite; reads RS piece on Beckett; after RS leaves Paris; takes RS to meet Alex Trocchi; translates Beckett’s Molloy into English; view of alliance with publisher of erotica; view of Beckett;
Brandt, Willy
Brantl, George
Brassaï (photographer)
Braverman, Harry
Braziller, George: as boss; hires RS; RS leaves firm; see also Book Find Club
Braziller, Marsha
Brecht, Bertolt
Brendan Behan (O’Connor)
Brigade Mondaine
Brodney, Richard
Brooklyn Bar Association
Brown, Pat
Bryan, Frederick van Pelt
Bryant, Baird
Burnett, Carl
Burroughs, William: connection to Allen Ginsberg; follows RS from Grove to Viking; as Grove Press author; at 1962 Edinburgh Festival; and 1968 Democratic convention; rights issues; see also Naked Lunch (Burroughs)
Cain’s Book (Trocchi)
Calder, John
“Calmative, The” (Beckett)
Calvados
Calvino, Italo
Camus, Albert; dispute with Sartre; as editor of Combat
Candy (Southern and Hoffenberg)
Carlier, Robert
carrefour de Buci, Paris
Cartel of Social and Moral Action
Casablanca (film)
Casement, Roger
Casement diaries
Castelli, Jean
Cau, Jean
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand
censorship, literary: in France; in U.S.; see also Lady Chatterley’s Lover (book); Miller, Henry; Naked Lunch (Burroughs); Story of O (Réage)
Cerf, Bennett
Chambon work camp
Chaplin, Charlie
Chareau, Pierre
Chaumont, France
Chevalier, Maurice
Chicago Review (magazine)
Christenberry, Robert
Cinema 16
Cioran, Emil
Citizen Kane (film)
City Lights, San Francisco
City of Night (Rechy)
Clair, René
Claudel, Paul
Clerx, Tony
Coca-Cola
Cockburn, Lord
Cocteau, Jean
Coenties Slip, New York City
Coffey, Joe
Cohen, Leonard
Cohn, Roy
Colette
Colin, Rosica
collaboration
Collection, The (Pinter)
Collection Merlin: Beckett’s work as catalyst; Grove acquires rights to Watt from; initial discussion with Maurice Girodias; initial list of books signed; invites Plimpton onto board; naming; plans for; printing considerations
Collège Cévenol
Columbus (steamship); collision at sea; RS edits cruise book;
Combat (newspaper)
Commager, Henry Steele
Communism
Comstock, Anthony
Connection, The (Gelber)
Connolly, Cyril
Conrad, Joseph, comparison with Samuel Beckett
Constant, Benjamin
“Continued,” see “Suite” (Beckett)
Cooper, Michael
Coover, Robert
copyright
Corea, Chick
Correspondance inédite du marquis de Sade, de ses proches et de ses familiers (Bourdin)
Corso, Gregory
Cowley, Malcolm
Criterion (publisher)
Critique (magazine)
Customs Service, U.S.
Daley, Richard
Damio, Ward
Dead Lecturer, The (Jones)
Debauched Hospodar, The (Apollinaire)
de Beauvoir, Simone
de Berg, Jean (pseudonym)
DeBoer, Bernard
Dédéyan, Charles
Defez, René
de Grazia, Edward
DeJohnette, Jack
DeJuge, Louis
Delaney, Shelagh
Dellinger, Dave
Delorme, Danièle
Democratic Convention, 1968, Chicago; Hayden piece in Evergreen Review
Democratic Socialists of America
Denise René art gallery, Paris
Denoël, Robert
Deputy, The (Hochhuth)
Der Marquis de Sade und seine Zeit (Dühren)
de Rougemont, Denis
d’Estrée, Sabine (pseudonym)
de Vilmorin, Louise
Dewey, Thomas E.
Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher (Haskins)
Dick-Read, Dr. Grantly
Dimanche Matin (magazine)
Direct Energy (management consultant firm)
Dock Brief, The (Mortimer)
Dodd, Mead
Douglas, William O.
du Gard, Martin
Duhamel, Georges
Dühren, Eugen
Dujardin, Édouard
Duras, Marguerite
Dürrenmatt, Friedrich
Dwarfs, The (Pinter)
École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
Edinburgh Festival
Eighth Street Bookshop, New York City
Einaudi (publisher)
Eleuthéria (Beckett)
Eleven Thousand Rods, The (Apollinaire)
Eliot, T.S.
En attendant Godot, see Waiting for Godot (Beckett)
Endgame (Beckett)
English Bookshop, Paris
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus
Epstein, Jason
Erasers, The (Robbe-Grillet)
Eros Denied: Sex in Western Society (Young)
Esquire (magazine): Genet’s visit to offices; paying Genet for writing two pieces; plans for coverage of 1968 Democratic convention
Evans, Matthew
Evergreen Review: begins publication; circulation; denounced by Gerald Ford; Don Allen’s role; “Mr. Freedom” issue; publishes excerpt from William O. Douglas’s Points of View; publishes excerpts of Last Exit to Brooklyn; publishes Genet’s “A Salute to a Hundred Thousand Stars”; publishes partial translation of Story of O; publishes Rechy’s “Mardi Gras”; role in Grove Press publishing; RS approached about editing; RS’s view; Tom Hayden piece on 1968 Democratic convention; Trocchi piece in
“Expelled, The” (Beckett)
Experiment in International Living
Faber and Faber
Fanny Hill
Fanon, Frantz
Far East, RS in
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Faure, Edgar
Faure, Lucie
fellowships, see American Field Service fellowship
Felsenthal, Francine
Feltrinelli (publisher)
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
Figatner, Herman
Film (Beckett screenplay)
films: Grove’s art film interest; Grove’s film-book projects
Finnegans Wake (book)
Finnegans Wake (film)
Fishman, Irving
Fitzgerald, Scott
Flaubert, Gustave
FOAs (Faithful Old Authors)
Foner, Henry
Fontaine (magazine)
Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Ford, Gerald
Formentor Prize
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)
400 Blows, The (book from film)
Franco, Gen. Francisco
Frankfurt Book Fair
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (newspaper)
Frechtman, Bernard
Friedman, Sandy
Frogé, Gaït
Frost, Robert
Fulbright Program
Fur, Leather, and Machine Workers
Gabin, Jean
Galbraith, John Kenneth
Gallimard (publisher); and Formentor Prize
Gallimard, Gaston
Gallimard Bookstore, Paris
Games People Play (Berne)
García Hortelano, Juan
Gelber, Jack
Geller, Jules
Genet, Jean: approached about writing TV screenplays; arrival in U.S. to cover 1968 Democratic convention; as Grove Press author; and Grove’s drama program; in Merlin issue number four; and 1968 Democratic convention; personal manner; Rosset’s interest in; RS meets translator Bernard Frechtman; RS’s view of work; Sartre’s view; tours New York’s Forty-second Street; U.S. censorship issue; U.S. government interest in; writes two pieces on Democratic convention; WORKS: The Balcony; The Blacks; Journal du voleur; The Maids; “The Members of the Assembly”; Our Lady of the Flowers; The Thief’s Journal
Germaine, Madame
Ghost Sonata (Strindberg)
Gide, André
Gielgud, John
Gigi (Colette)
Gingrich, Arnold
Ginsberg, Allen: connection to William Burroughs; as Grove Press author; interest in Burroughs’s Naked Lunch; and 1968 Democratic convention
Giraudoux, Jean
Girodias, Eric
Girodias, Marcelle Eugenie
Girodias, Maurice: as avowed purveyor of eroticism; background; feud with Jean-Jacques Pauvert over Story of O; and Grove Press; and Lolita; meets Merlinites; Merlinite alliance with Olympia Press; and Naked Lunch; at 1959 Frankfurt Book Fair; offers printing and distribution help with Collection Merlin; provides publishing assistance with Beckett’s Watt; and rights issues concerning Tropic of Cancer; after RS leaves Paris
Gold, Herbert
Goldfischer, Morrie
Goldman, Albert
Gombrowicz, Witold
Goodman, Benjamin
Goudeket, Maurice
Gover, Robert
Goytisolo, Juan
Grande Séverine
Gregory, Dick
Grove Press: archives; attempt to unionize; as Beckett’s American publisher; book club; book covers and jackets; executive committee; film-book projects; film interest; financial status; and Formentor Prize; at Frankfurt Book Fair; growth and change; interest in Genet’s U.S. visit; and Lady Chatterley’s Lover; notable authors; operations and management; Phyllis Bellows at; public stock offering; as publisher of plays; Rosset’s efforts to hire RS; RS first meets Barney Rosset; RS leaves; RS’s first day; RS’s late hours; and Tropic of Cancer; women’s rights occupation; see also Evergreen Review; Rosset, Barney
The Tender Hour of Twilight Page 54