"Why Do We Write?"

In the spirit of the WGA’s “Why We Write” campaign, I thought I’d share this letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Scribners, on the occasion of the publication of “The Great Gatsby.” Ah—the writer’s life! Enjoy.


Marseille, en route to Paris
Early April 1925
Dear Max:
Your telegram depressed me—I hope I’ll find better news in Paris and am wiring you from Lyons. There’s nothing to say until I hear more. If the book fails commercially it will be from one of two reasons or both
1st The title is only fair, rather bad than good.
2nd And most important—the book contains no important woman character and women control the fiction market at present. I don’t think the unhappy end matters particularly.
It will have to sell 20,000 copies to wipe out my debt to you. I think it will do that all right—but my hope was it would do 75,000. This week will tell.

In all events I have a book of good stories for this fall. Now I shall write some cheap ones until I’ve accumulated enough for my next novel. When that is finished and published I’ll wait and see. If it will support me with no more intervals of trash I’ll go on as a novelist. If not I’m going to quit, come home, go to Hollywood and learn the movie business. I can’t reduce our scale of living and I can’t stand this financial insecurity. Anyhow there’s no point in trying to be an artist if you can’t do your best. I had my chance back in 1920 to start my life on a sensible scale and I lost it and so I’ll have to pay the penalty. Then perhaps at 40 I can start writing again without this constant worry and interruption

Yours in great depression
Scott

Common Ground

What do Democrats and an Iraqi Islamic Militia Ruler have In common? The desperate need for a U.S. withdrawal date.

clipped from www.latimes.com Sadr's bloc quits Iraq's ruling coalition BAGHDAD -- -- The parliament bloc loyal to influential cleric Muqtada Sadr walked out of Iraq's ruling Shiite coalition Saturday, further aggravating rifts inside the country's largest religious sect and loosening the alliance's grip on power. "The main problem in Iraq now is the occupation, and the solution is to have a timetable for the withdrawal of occupiers, and anyone who agrees with us on this demand will find our hearts opened to him," lawmaker Nassar Rubaie said.

Slippery Slope

More food for thought as thing heat up in the Middle East.

clipped from www.nytimes.com WASHINGTON, June 15 — A year after President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a new strategy toward Iran, a behind-the-scenes debate has broken out within the administration over whether the approach has any hope of reining in Iran’s nuclear program, according to senior administration officials. Even beyond its nuclear program, Iran is emerging as an increasing source of trouble for the Bush administration by inflaming the insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and in Gaza, where it has provided military and financial support to the militant Islamic group Hamas, which now controls the Gaza Strip. While Mr. Mofaz did not threaten a military strike, Israeli officials said he told Ms. Rice that by the end of the year, Israel “would have to reassess where we are.”

NEXT GEN REPUBLICANS

I wonder what went into the kids' lemonade?

clipped from www.latimes.com Publisher aims to teach kids right from left A Torrance publishing exec says he sees too many children’s books with liberal views. His titles aim to tilt the shelves the other way. By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer 8:44 PM PDT, May 31, 2007 'Other side of the equation' click to enlarge Publishing executive Eric Jackson's first foray into children's books was a cartoon tale of two brothers and a lemonade stand. Hoping to earn money for a swing set, young Tommy and Lou squeeze lemons until their little hands ached. But they are thwarted by broccoli-pushing, camera-hogging, Jesus-hating liberals who pile on taxes and regulations and drive the boys out of business. The book, "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!" came out two years ago. Jackson said it sold nearly 30,000 copies, which in the publishing world made it a bona fide hit. That success reinforced Jackson's view that the nation's bookshelves had tilted way too far left and that a correction was in order.

Testing 1,2,3,

I'm testing to see if this actually looks the way I want it to look.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Bush Proposes Goal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: June 1, 2007 WASHINGTON, May 31 — President Bush, fending off international accusations that he was ignoring climate change, proposed for the first time on Thursday to set “a long-term global goal” for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and he called on other high-polluting nations to join the United States in negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement by the end of next year.