LETTERHEADS AT LOGGERHEADS – THE TROUBLED EDITORIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN KENNEDY TOOLE AND ROBERT GOTTLIEB
LETTERHEADS AT LOGGERHEADS – THE TROUBLED EDITORIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN KENNEDY TOOLE AND ROBERT GOTTLIEB

Summary/Abstract: The paper outlines the two-year-long editorial epistolary relationship between J.K. Toole and R. Gottlieb, occasioned by the aspiring novelist’s attempt to take American literary stage by storm with his gargantuan novel, which fails to impress the exigent New York editor. Misunderstandings over apposite observations on topics concerning narrative style and composition are placed in the broader context of the sixties, when the South was the scene of major historical transformations. The TooleGottlieb negotiation for the publication of Confederacy, labeled as ‘anatomy of a rejection’, is analyzed with an emphasis on discourse hypertrophy, both fictional and real, as the editor’s Jewish background eventually caused dissatisfied Toole and his mother to make anti-Semitic remarks that unfortunately marred the correct understanding of a process that was to bring about both tragedy and success.

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