Topical Guide 6
Mark Dorset
Editing, Misprints, Typos
In your ad you said “lovely young woman.” Or did you write “lonely” and the Daily News made a mistake (as they so often do, not only in their spelling but in their editorial positions) and printed “lovely”?
Little Follies, “My Mother Takes a Tumble”
A superstitious regard to the correction of his sheets was one of Mr. Savage’s peculiarities: he often altered, revised, recurred to his first reading or punctuation, and again adopted the alteration; he was dubious and irresolute without end, as on a question of the last importance, and at last was seldom satisfied: the intrusion or omission of a comma was sufficient to discompose him, and he would lament an error of a single letter as a heavy calamity.
Samuel Johnson, Life of Richard Savage
Letters, Correspondence, Erotic Element of
I lay in the tub for, I’m ashamed to admit, nearly an hour, reading and rereading your letter, John, and whispering your name, John, John, while I ran my sponge over myself in a transport of bliss.
Little Follies, “My Mother Takes a Tumble”
The thought of Maurice’s best friend continued to disturb me for a long while. I sent him several letters that read like the productions of an obsessed old maid. His replies didn’t offend me. I believed that the exchanging of ideas had an aphrodisiac power, that an act of love is always better after one has fought either for or against Hegel. I believed it and I still believe it.
Violette Leduc, La Bâtarde
Correspond to, Correspond with
I would like very much to correspond to you, for I understand your needs as I, too, have needs that are, I’m sure, quite similar. . . . And so I say to you, “Chin up. Now you have a friend to correspond to.”
Eliza Foote, as “John Simpson,” in Little Follies, “My Mother Takes a Tumble”
correspond in the sense of be similar etc. takes to; in the sense of communicate by letter it takes with.
H. W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
Eliza wasn’t the only person to answer Mr. Beaker’s ad, but she was the first. She signed her letter “John Simpson,” approximating the name of Dan Hanson, the only unattached salesman at Hackett & Belder, a fellow who cut a dashing figure in his fedora and checked jacket and set Eliza’s heart aflutter whenever he walked past her desk.
Little Follies, “My Mother Takes a Tumble”
It seems to me that, Eliza has, as part of her disguise, donned not only Dan Hanson’s fedora and checked jacket, but also his total ignorance of Fowler’s sacred text.
The Topical Guide continues after Episode 7 of the Personal History.
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of “My Mother Takes a Tumble,” “Do Clams Bite?,” “Life on the Bolotomy,” “The Static of the Spheres,” “The Fox and the Clam,” “The Girl with the White Fur Muff,” and “Take the Long Way Home,” the first seven novellas in Little Follies.
You’ll find an overview of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. It’s a pdf document.
Marcel Proust drove his publishers crazy with the number of editions and Changes he made to his proofs. Not only did he cross things out, he also wrote whole new paragraphs on scraps of paper and pasted the scraps to his proofs.
In the Middle Ages remission letters were sent to kings or princes in the hope that they would pardon crimes committed by the sender of the letters. The skill with which the letters were written had a lot to do with whether they were successful or not. These letters often took the form of narratives. I am interested in the difference between fiction and autobiography that do not have a specific purpose and writing that does. For example pornography and erotica are designed to sexually arouse the reader.
Years ago I did a performance piece in which I described my mother slamming my head into a stair. I was nine years old. I sent my mother a letter about the incident and she wrote back saying that it never happened. I realized that I wanted an apology, but I did not make that clear when I sent her the letter. I wrote out an apology. It began: ”Dear Peter, I am terribly sorry for what I did to you. I know there is no excuse for hurting a child.” I sent her a self-addressed stamped envelope and asked her to read the letter, sign it and return it to me. She did not return the letter but it was satisfying to send it to her. Sometimes we don’t get the apology we want unless we write it ourselves.
I love the personal history, Adventures... of Peter Leroy. Thank you for the comp. I’m reading a weekly serial mystery, too. On FB and codrescu.com