LAUNCH: Mary Lavin & The New Yorker | Gráinne Hurley
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Join us to celebrate the launch of Gráinne Hurley’s new book, Gratefully and Affectionately: Mary Lavin and The New Yorker, the first ever book about Mary Lavin’s 18-year working relationship with The New Yorker and a fascinating insight into the lives of two brilliant 20th-century literary women. The launch will take place at 6.30pm on Wednesday 11th June where Gráinne will be introduced by Kathleen MacMahon and refreshments will be served. All are welcome.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Between 1958 and 1976, the Irish American writer Mary Lavin had sixteen stories published in The New Yorker, after J. D. Salinger introduced her to the magazine. It was a prolific time for Lavin, helped in no small part by her close working relationship with her chief editor there, Rachel MacKenzie. They wrote nearly four-hundred letters to each other, the topics of which ranged from story edits to holiday plans, windfalls and legal troubles, mutual literary friends and their love of gardening, promotions and health emergencies. Within a year of working together, they were ending their letters with ‘love’, ‘gratefully’ and ‘affectionately’. Lavin was soon offered the magazine’s highly coveted first-reading agreement.
Gráinne Hurley’s impressive debut, Gratefully & Affectionately: Mary Lavin & The New Yorker, draws extensively from Lavin and MacKenzie’s letters as well as other material related to the revered magazine. It explores the collaborative relationship between this writer and her editor, Lavin’s own writing process, the inner workings and editing procedures of The New Yorker and the process of publishing a story from manuscript to print during its heyday. The book also reveals Lavin’s professional dealings with agents and publishers and her friendships with prominent literary figures including Eudora Welty, Frank O’Connor, William Maxwell and John McGahern
Gratefully & Affectionately offers fascinating insight into the lives and careers of two mid-20th-century women, working on either side of the Atlantic and inhabiting the small but hallowed world of literary publishing. It reveals how their fortunate union and combined love for the written word produced some of Lavin’s finest work.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“A complete portrait of a most complex and brilliant personality.”
— Colm Tóibín
“A very fine piece of research and beautifully written. Writer and editor are so warmly portrayed, and the insight into their relationship – both professional and personal – is fascinating.”
—Kathleen MacMahon