Thursday, July 14, 2016

Publicist says I have NOT committed professional suicide

Profile in New York Magazine by Christian Lorentzen, here.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

One major difference between you and DFW is that DFW sucks.

Kweku said...

Hi Helen,

I'm absolutely loving these recent interviews of yours. I feel like the cigarette in your hand in that picture continues upwards as an invisible flag of victory. You will prevail over all these TPWs!

- Hassan

Languagehat said...

A great interview, and I posted a link to it on LH. I'm thrilled the book is out again, and I hope you have a lot fewer problems with editors and publishers in the future!

Bacon said...

Dear Helen,
I have discovered you just through that interview, I am ashamed it took me this long (in my discharge, I am in Spain and I am a chemist), and your bio impressed me tremendously, your going to Smith in search of a life of the mind, the sad realization of how much college has changed in the last years, so that even someone at Oxford may need to quit to do something meaningful in literature...
On the other hand, fifteen years behind tenure, I feel (I am) like a piece of shit in comparison.
I think the next book I'm buying for my daughter is going to be El último samurai. And I guess I'm borrowing it.
My very best wishes and my admiration

Vincent Oostelbos said...

Very glad you're getting so many interviews these days. I hope they'll give you more recognition, and help you find a way out of any financial hardships that you're in that keep you from doing what you want to do, i.e. writing (and whatever else there might be). Hopefully this new edition of The Last Samurai will also set you on that path! I wish you all the best, and hope you're not tired of the interviews yet.

Oh, and I hope you won't hold it against me if I also say that I did kind of fall in love with all of your books. (That's not the only thing I thought about them, though!)

Greg said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Greg said...

Your travails inspire me to no end. I'm about to send my MS to agents after ten rewrites and eight-plus years laboring on it & going absolute loopy.

miette said...

Congratulations! I am so glad this is going to be back into production. Wishing you every every success.

Scott Gosnell said...

Helen DeWitt is having A Moment.

All of the people who conducted these interviews have spent years recommending both The Last Samurai and Lightning Rods to other avid readers. It's a pleasure to see Last Samurai back in print.

I hope that this second phase of Helen's career will present as much success as the first half presented difficulties.

Anonymous said...

I don't remember how I happened upon THE LAST SAMURAI, but I have read it several times since purchasing it soon after its publication. I cannot think of another book that I have ever re-read, though my bookshelves are full of excellent books. THE LAST SAMURAI remains my all-time favorite book and one of the only books I ever recommend.

David Foster Wallace and INFINITE JEST do not begin to compare.

I was pleased to be reminded of Helen DeWitt today and to find this article.

Mithridates said...

STOP. SMOKING.