A Writer
Protests
August
30, 1996
Mr. Charles
McGrath
Editor, New York Times Book Review
229 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
Dear Mr. McGrath:
I would like
to call your attention to my eleventh novel, Our Lady
of Babylon, published in July by Arcade Publishing,
its publication coinciding with the release of new uniform
editions of my earlier novels from Grove Press. Our
Lady of Babylon took five years to write. I believe
it's the best work I've produced in my 33 years as an
author. (My first novel, City of Night, was published
in 1963.)
I would like
to point out that I've been strongly admonished not to
write this letter. It's been suggested that because I
have written to book-review journals in the past (at times
inquiring about review-attention, at other times thanking
editors or reviewers for thoughtful reviews or protesting
a reviewer's clearly not having read the book assigned),
I may have invited "a sort of blacklisting"
at your newspaper. That, of course, is too far-fetched
to believe, and I emphatically dismissed the sinister
intimations when they were first suggested. This letter
(expressing solely my views) attests to the fact that
I disbelieve such dour bruitings even more emphatically
now.
Indeed, especially
considering the increasing difficulties that serious writing
faces these days--even in achieving publication--I can't
conceive of there being any objection to a writer's simply
calling attention to his work. During the many years that
I have reviewed books for, and that my novels have been
reviewed in, The Nation, Los Angeles Times,
Premiere, New York Magazine, Washington
Post Book World, Philadelphia Inquirer,
Dallas Morning News, among others, I have detected
no evidence of antagonism between book-review editors
and authors; nor have I detected any strict demarcation
to be adhered to--we all share a respect for the importance
of the written word.
In the hope
that your very busy schedule may allow you to peruse them,
I enclose a "Booklist" review and two
interviews that may acquaint you further with my new novel.
I do hope
you'll consider my eleventh novel for attention in the
"New York Times Book Review."
In any event,
I wish you a most successful term as editor.
Sincerely,
John Rechy
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