Gordon Lish

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Gordon Jay Lish (born February 11, (1934) in Hewlett, New York) is an American writer whose wrote a number of well-regarded novels and short stories. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver and Richard Ford.


Early life

Gordon Lish graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1952. In 1959, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English with honors from the University of Arizona, where he met his first wife, Loretta Frances Fokes Lish. They married Nov. 1956. In 1957, they had their first daughter, Jennifer, followed by Becca in 1959 and Ethan in 1962.

Following Gordon's graduation, the family moved to San Francisco. Lish attended a year of graduate study at San Francisco State College in 1960. In Early 1961, Candido Santogrossi and Lish founded a new Pacific Coast avant garde literary, The Chrysalis Review.

As Founder and Editor of Genesis West

After this, the Lish family moved to Burlingame, where Loretta and Gordon founded the avant garde literary magazine "Genesis West," which ran from 1961 to 1965. "Genesis West" was published in seven volumes by The Chrysalis West Foundation. While working on Genesis West, their house and magazine became a focus point, and celebrated and introduced such authors and poets as Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Jack Gilbert, and Herbert Gold.

The Lish family often hosted the likes of Ken Kesey and Neal Cassady in their Burlingame home. The Merry Pranksters' wildly painted school bus, 'Furthur,' driven by Neal Cassady, was often parked in front of their home. Neal Cassady makes note of his time spent at the Lishes on page 151 of his only self-authored book, The First Third. Carolyn Cassady makes note of the Lishes on page 387 of Off The Road.

In 1963, he became director of linguistic studies at Behavioral Research Laboratories in Menlo Park, California. There, in 1964, he produced English Grammar, a text for educators; Why Work, a book of interviews; New Sounds in American Fiction, a set of recorded dramatic readingsof short stories; and A Man's Work, an information motivation sound system in vocational guidance. It consisted of over 50 translucent albums. He and Loretta divorced in 1969, and that same year he married Barbara Works Lish.

While in Menlo Park, one of Lish's friends was Raymond Carver, who was editing educational materials in an office across the street from Lish's. Lish edited a number of stories which wound up as Carver's first national magazine publications.

As an Editor at Esquire Magazine

Gordon and Barbara moved to New York City, and Gordon served as fiction editor at Esquire from 1969 to 1976, where he became known as "Captain Fiction" for the number of authors whose careers he assisted.[citation needed] Lish published numerous Carver stories in Esquire, and championed the work of Richard Ford; he also promoted the work of such writers as Cynthia Ozick, Reynolds Price, T. Coraghessan Boyle, and Barry Hannah.

He and Barbara had a son, Atticus, in 1971.

While at Esquire, Lish edited the collections The Secret Life of Our Times and All Our Secrets Are the Same, which contained pieces by a number of prominent authors, from Vladimir Nabokov to Milan Kundera.

In February 1977, Esquire published, "For Rupert - with no promises" as an unsigned work of fiction, the first time it published a work without identifying the author. Readers speculated that it was the work of J. D. Salinger, but it was in fact a clever parody by Lish, who is quoted as saying, "I tried to borrow Salinger's voice and the psychological circumstances of his life, as I imagine them to be now. And I tried to use those things to elaborate on certian circumstances and events in his fiction to deepen them and add complexity." The Wall Street Journal 2/25/1977

As an Editor at Alfred A. Knopf

Lish left Esquire in 1977 to become a senior editor with the publishing firm of Alfred A. Knopf, where he remained until 1995. He continued to champion new fiction, publishing works by Cynthia Ozick, David Leavitt, Amy Hempel, Noy Holland, Lynne Tillman, William Ferguson, Barry Hannah, Harold Brodkey, and Joy Williams. A number of books by Lish's friends (notably Don DeLillo have been dedicated to his son Atticus.

Lish continued teaching creative writing, inspiring writers including Amy Hempel (who dedicated her collection Reasons to Live to him).

During his time at Knopf, Lish published several volumes of his own fiction. Dear Mr. Capote], his first novel, was proclaimed by "The New York Times Book Review" as "one of the best first novels of the year". What I know so far, a hardback of short stories, was published in 1984 and included "For Rupert - with no promises." His next novel, Peru, was published in 1986 and received a strong notice from Publisher's Weekly.

In 1987, Lish founded and edited the avant garde literary magazine, The Quarterly. The Quarterly showcases the works of contemporary authors. Six volumes were published by the summer if 1988, and such authors as Jane Smiley, Mark Richard, and Jennifer Allen. By the time the Quarterly ended in 1995, it had published 31 volumes.

Lish continued to write fiction, including Mourner at the door in 1988, Extravaganza in 1989, My Romance in 1991, and Zimzum in 1993.

For the June 1991 issue of Vanity Fair, James Wolcott wrote a profile on Gordon Lish and Don DeLillo called "The Sunshine Boys."

He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994; that same year, his wife Barbara died.

Recent Years

On Aug. 9, 1998, "The New York Times Magazine" published an article by D.T. Max about claims that the late Raymond Carver's early short stories were more or less ghost-written Lish, his editor. Lish continued to write for a decade after leaving Knopf; his most recent work is Mysterium, published in 2002.

Lish has placed all his papers and manuscripts at the Lilly Library of Indiana University. It has been reported that these papers show how Lish edited manuscripts of the writers he worked with (such as Raymond Carver) and include correspondance about the editorial process.

It has been reported that John Malkovich plans to direct an adaptation of Lish's first novel, Dear Mr. Capote.[citation needed]

He was named one of the 200 major writers of our time by the French periodical Le Nouvel Observateur.

As a Teacher

In addition to his career in literary publishing, Lish has conducted writing seminars in New York City and served as a lecturer at Yale University, New York University and Columbia University. He himself graduated from the Gotham Writers Workshop.

Don DeLillo acknowledged Lish's influence as a teacher in dedicating his book Mao II to him.

He retired from teaching fiction writing in 1997

He is an honorary doctor of letters from State University of New York from 1994.

Quotes

  • "The secret of good writing is telling the truth." -- Gordon Lish, Dick Cavett television interview, Aug. 25, 1991
  • "It’s not what happens to people on the page; it’s about what happens to a reader in his heart and mind." -- Gordon Lish
  • "I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see instead perseverance, application, industry, assiduity, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire." -- Gordon Lish
  • "Never be sincere — sincerity is the death of writing" -- Gordon Lish


Select English Bibliography

Gordon Lish is the author of a number of novels and collections of his short stories

  • A Man's Work, New York : McGraw-Hill, (1967), OCLC 5855822
  • All Our Secrets are The Same, New York : Norton, (1976), ISBN 0393087484 LCCN 76040486 OCLC 2425115
  • Arcade, or, How to write a novel, New York : Four Walls Eight Windows, (1998), ISBN 1-56858-115-7 LCCN 98026693
  • Dear Mr. Capote, New York : C. Scribner’s Sons, (1986), ISBN 0-684-18675-6 LCCN 85026276
  • English Grammar, Palo Alto, Ca.: Behavioral Research Laboratories, (1964) OCLC 11328343
  • Epigraph, New York : Four Walls Eight Windows, (1996), ISBN 1-56858-076-2 LCCN 96019753
  • Extravaganza, New York : Putnam, (1989), ISBN 0-399-13417-4 LCCN 88028146 OCLC 18463582
  • Krupp’s Lulu, New York : Four Walls Eight Windows, (2000), ISBN 1-56858-154-8 LCCN 99086329 OCLC 43324258
  • Mourner at the door, New York : Penguin Books, (1988), ISBN 0-140-10680-4 LCCN 88031663
  • My Romance, New York : Norton, (1991), ISBN 0-393-03001-6 LCCN 90024142 OCLC 22766592
  • Mysterium, New York : Four Walls Eight Windows, (2002), ISBN 1-56858-227-7 LCCN 2001055668 OCLC 48450878
  • New Sounds in American Fiction, Menlo Park : Cummings Pub. Co. (1969), LCCN 68058434 OCLC 4102981
  • Peru, New York : E.P. Dutton, (1986), ISBN 0-525-24375-5 LCCN 85013015 OCLC 12216053
  • Self-imitation of Myself, New York : Four Walls Eight Windows, (1997), ISBN 1-56858-098-3 LCCN 97013200 OCLC 36713172
  • The Secret Life of Our Times, Garden City : Doubleday, (1973), ISBN 0-385-06215-X LCCN 73080734 OCLC 754648
  • The Selected Stories of Gordon Lish, Toronto : Somerville House Pub., (1996), ISBN 1-895897-74-2 OCLC 35927592
  • What I know so far, New York : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, (1984), ISBN 0-03-070609-2 LCCN 83012980 OCLC 9830715
  • Why Work, Palo Alto, Ca.: Behavioral Research Laboratories, (1966), OCLC 62726395
  • Zimzum, New York : Pantheon, (1993), ISBN 0-679-42685-X LCCN 93003360 OCLC 27769736

Editor

Gordon Lish was the editor of a number of novels and collections of short stories by other authors. Select highlights include;

  • Barry Hannah; Captain Maximus Short Stories and Screen Treatment, New York : Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated New York, NY, U.S.A. (1985)
  • Barry Hannah; Ray, New York : Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated New York, NY, U.S.A. (1980)
  • Diane Williams Some Sexual Success Stories: Plus Other Stories in Which God Might Choose to Appear

Awards

External links to works by Lish

  • [1] A Poem by Gordon Lish in South Atlantic Quarterly
  • [2] How to Write a Poem by Gordon Lish in the THE PARIS REVIEW No. 82
  • [3] The Day Mother Invented Junk Food; Mother Lish's Bologna Sandwich

External links to reviews of works by Lish

External links to awards received by Lish

  • [22] Gordon Lish wins the O. Henry Prize in 1984 and 1986
  • [23] John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows

External links to archives and biographies with reference to Lish

External links to articles with reference to Lish

External links to interviews with Lish

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