When I was a lowly bookseller in the early 1990s, I noticed a rather aristocratic-looking woman in her 60s, striding around the shop as if she owned it. She stopped, took a book from the shelf and shouted "Antonio! Antonio!" A few seconds later, a slightly disheveled
man in a tweed jacket shuffled across the carpet, saying "What? Oh yes...Er...Hmphh..."
It was Anthony Burgess. I recognised him immediately, from his many appearances on chat shows.
Burgess was the polar opposite of Sallinger*; maddeningly prolific and seemingly incapable of turning down an opportunity to appear on television or write a newspaper article. But, as this appearance on the Dick Cavett Show demonstrates, you can see why the offers kept coming in:
* I've been corrected on my spelling of Salinger. My apologies. My wife is always telling me off for not proof-reading what I've written.
JD might have felt the need to appear on TV to shout "One L in Salinger!".
ReplyDeleteUsually it's "Hemmingway", so this is novel. Thanks!
I don't know who you're talking about, but I was referring to Etienne Sallinger, the author of La Vie Est Trop Courte Pour la Pédanterie, a retiring man who only published one novel.
ReplyDeleteThe local used book sale yielded a copy of Little Wilson and Big God a while back, which like most Burgess is very readable. I did not much like what I believe was his final novel, The End of the World News, but I did enjoy the preface, which I recall as saying that it wasn't worth the trouble of writing good books any more.
ReplyDeleteJ.D. Salinger published more than the double-ell Frenchman, at least one novel, two novellas, and a book of short stories. But he long outlived his last publication date.
Burgess certainly is great value (despite his mop of hair) - I chuckled all the way through that clip - thanks for finding it. It also reminds me that I have his Shakespeare book 'Nothing like the sun' on my shelves to read ...
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post. Love your reply, Steerforth. xoxo
ReplyDeleteElderly publisher anecdote: for a while in the 80s I was Burgess's paperback publisher (Abacus) - The Kingdom of the Wicked, notably.
ReplyDeleteI only met him once, in London, in a hotel somewhere in Bayswater where he was staying with his rather fearsome wife. We had nothing much to talk about, it was merely a courtesy call, and I took along a Sphere/Abacus catalogue, mostly so he could see the company he was keeping, which included Primo Levi.
After the briefest glance at the Abacus list he moved on to the mass-market stuff on the Sphere list, particularly SF and crime. 'Haven't read that...haven't read that...could I have a copy of that...?' he was soon saying, to the point where I gave him a pen and asked him to mark the titles.
I ended up sending a sizeable box of freebies to his house in Monaco. Knowing his voracious reading habits, I have no doubt he read all of them, too. He was a bit of an old rogue, inclined to self-importance, but a true renaissance man - we won't see his like again.
I thought it was interesting that he almost never met anyone's eyes. I'm not sure why that attracted my attention, but it did.
ReplyDeleteMr Burgess' comments at the beginning...about London being a Utopia so there's nothing to write about, where as American is a very interesting place had me laughing until I nearly fell off my seat...
ReplyDeleteGeorge - I ended up with a free copy of Little Wilson and Big God and found it entertaining but exhausting. I wouldn't want to be stuck on a Greyhound bus with Burgess for longer than two hours.
ReplyDeleteAnnabel - He's entertaining and there's a dry sense of humour behind the eccentric facade, but he does go on.
Carol - Thanks. I hope you explore the works of Etienne when you have a chance.
Mike - I agree. He was an extraordinary man, frustrated that he never achieved his true vocation of composing (although his music's pretty awful). I used to wonder why he appeared on Wogan, which was always slightly embarrassing for him and Terry.
Joan - Perhaps it's all scripted and he's reading an autocue ;)
Nota Bene - Yes, that was hilarious - ten years before the riots. He was living in Italy at the time and I suspect that his visits to London didn't expose him to the livelier districts of the city.
"And it's just been published by Kernopff". I never knew that's how to pronounce it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this amazing post. I was once in a phone box in France with a book dealer who had his phone number and some sort of introduction. We phoned his Monte Carlo number and got short shrift. He did not want to sell a single book.
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