Just to be clear, I wasn't complaining, just curious about the provenance. I like his early '60s novels, and based on the small taste I've enjoyed, I think I'm going to like this one, too.
And if you find any more unpublished Westlake, bring it on.
Mark
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> From: editor@hardcasecrime.com
> Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:22:48 +0000
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Westlake's Memory
>
>
> Sorry for any confusion, guys. As I have made clear in all the various
> interviews I've given about the book (and Lawrence Block has made clear
> in all the interviews he's given and pieces he's written on the
> subject), Donald Westlake wrote MEMORY in the early 1960s. He gave it
> to his agent, but the agent was unable to sell it, possibly because it
> was twice the length of Don's other books at the time, possibly because
> it was a dark and sensitive philosophical/literary/mainstream novel
> rather than a punchy commercial crime novel, possibly because that agent
> just didn't have contacts among editors outside the hardcore genre
> publishers. Whatever the reason, he told Don he couldn't sell it, so
> Don put it away in a drawer, and despite Larry's urging Don to publish
> the book at various times over the next 40 years, Don never did.
>
> It's the last unpublished Westlake novel I was aware of, which is why
> "final unpublished novel" seemed like a reasonable description. But no,
> it wasn't written after all his other novels. (And it may not even be
> the last one that exists -- Max Allan Collins has since told me about
> another manuscript he saw some years ago that he's confident never got
> published. So there may eventually be one more.)
>
> --Charles
>
>
>
>
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