Letter to John Updike

If this were 1985 instead of 2010 and I had a Juki daisywheel printer instead of a blog, I might have interrupted The Anthologist to write letters to Nicholson Baker. Instead, I interrupted his novel to write this and this.

Without putting a return address on the envelope.

Without even using an envelope.

Also, I just want to note that I, at 37, cannot write sentences as long as Nicholson Baker wrote to John Updike when he was 28.

Instead, these fragments.

That will have to be OK.

nybooks:

Nicholson Baker

Twenty-five years ago, when I was twenty-eight and trying to write a novel, I sent this fan letter to John Updike. I lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, back then, and my girlfriend, now my wife, lived in Boston. I printed the letter out all on one page, with narrow margins, using my new Kaypro computer and Juki daisywheel printer. Updike didn’t answer—he couldn’t, because I didn’t put a return address on the envelope.

(this post was reblogged from nybooks)

Notes

  1. livebegive reblogged this from nybooks
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    were 1985 instead of 2010...printer instead of a blog,
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