Editor Gordon Lish

While doing research on Gordon Lish I came across a very interesting discovery. This guy, former editor for Esquire magazine from 1969 to 1977, completely changed writers' works. So much so that the original, when compared to the stripped down finish, might conceivably be unrecognizable.

An October 2007 New York Times article, When We Talk About Editing, revealing the deep cuts Lish made in Raymond Carver's work is eye opening. Astounding, actually.

What is especially interesting to me is that when I was first writing fiction, a New York friend in the publishing business said my work was O.K. but to see what great writing really looked like I should read Raymond Carver who exemplified the new minimalism in literature.

Now, more than two decades later, I discover Carver is not what everyone thought he was. Or rather, the Carver that critics called "great" was actually Gordon Lish. How can this be?

Editors do play several important roles when it comes to writers. I am grateful for having had some very good editors massage my work at times. A takes a second set of eyes to see that two ideas in a paragraph may not be linked very well, or that a meaning is ambiguous, or that a sentence is clumsy. Young writers are more likely to get repeat jobs if they don't mind this attention to detail by a second pen.

Here's the opening paragraph of the Times piece.

''One More Thing'' is the final story in both ''What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,'' Raymond Carver's breakthrough collection from 1981, and ''Beginners,'' a proposed volume of what Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, and some scholars, consider Carver's original versions of the same stories. They were later trimmed and sometimes reshaped by Gordon Lish, Carver's first editor. In the story L. D. is threatening to walk out on his wife and family.

Check out these two versions of the end of one of Raymond Carver's more famous stories, revealing how the piece was originally submitted and what readers saw after Dr. Lish applied the scalpel.

What do you think?

The Leonardo Interview

This weekend I was interviewed for the ezine Leonardo, which dubs itself as the Virtual Voice of the iRenaissance. The topic was blogging.

Leonardo: How do you view your blogging? Is it a job or a hobby?
ennyman: I've never considered it in those terms. Definitely not a job, though I feel a certain responsibility about it, much like one who has a job considers it important to show up every day. It's more of an exploration driven by passion.

Leonardo: How has Ennyman's Territory changed since you first began this blog.
ennyman: Initially the blog was simply an exploration of what blogging is and how it could be used. My content consisted primarily of extracts from 30-plus years of journal writing, with pictures of my art to illustrate each entry. The journal notes and quotes would be elaborated on with current feedback to what I had written in the past, amplifying or elaborating upon the initial entry.

Leonardo: What is the origin of your blog address, Pioneer Productions?
ennyman: Being a descendant of Daniel Boone, I have always identified with pioneers. Boone was a "long hunter" or what Minnesotans call Voyageurs. He would go out for a while and return with the goods that provided for his family.

Leonardo: Your visual art seems to go in a lot of directions. Do you consider the source of your creative energy to be hyperkinetic or a living spring?
ennyman: Well, to some extent it's both. I believe there's a well in each of us which we can tap into and draw from, a living spring. But yes, there are times when a catalyst sets off a burst of ideas and it does feel a bit hyperkinetic as you put it.

Leonardo: Do you have an aim with Ennyman's Territory?
ennyman: Several. I like to challenge people to look at things from a new angle and to think. Also, the artist in me is always in search of an audience, I think. For example, when I built my first website in the mid-90's it was in part to place to showcase my stories which I had poured myself into, but continually failed to get published. Putting them online not only gained them readers, it resulted in one being made into a short film, and three being translated into foreign languages -- Russian, Croatian and French. Two of my daughters short stories which I'd posted got published as well, in California and New Zealand. Ultimately, it is my aim to leave the world a better place than I found it, which I believe everyone should be striving to do.

Leonardo: What are some things your want to write about that you don't currently have time for?
ennyman: The list is endless. Infinite, really. Here's a quick skim of the first ten things that come to mind.
1. Interview my father-in-law in more depth, possibly place it on YouTube. He was the second Minnesotan drafted in World War II, and is currently 89.
2. Explore in more depth our fascination with stats. Internet stats, population stats, baseball stats, astronomical stats, economic financial stats, number of fights Rocky Marciano had without a defeat, etc.
3. Explore the notion that organized power can only be restrained by organized power based on the idea that Einstein was a pacifist who became non-pacifist due to Hitler.
4. The Owens-Blevins shootout in Holbrook during the 1880s.
5. Why does beauty make us cry? The Grand Canyon… Chopin… the Corn Palace in Mitchell South Dakota.
6. SWAT Team abuse. Who pays for the damage after the wreckage? How much of this goes on that we don't know about?
7. Tina Mion
8. Gordon Lish
9. The crippled newspaper industry. How serious is it? What difference will it make if we lose our local newspapers? The numbers speak for themselves.
10. Life On Mars, the David Bowie song from his Hunky Dory album, not the actual Red Planet.

Leonardo: We'll look forward to what comes next.
ennyman: Yes, it's one day at a time here. Today, sunrise in Sedona... tomorrow, back to the ranch in Minnesota.

Leonardo: Thanks for your time.
ennyman: And for your interest.

EDNOTE: The Leonardo ezine referred to here is not to be confused with the MIT publication of the same name at www.leonardo.info. It is a fabrication germinated in the mind of ennyman.