Jim Twiggs: [to Stan K-B] "the idea that Lish's editing was a disastrous and arrogant thing is highly debatable...I agree that, given the size of VN's reputation at the time, Lish should either have accepted or rejected the chapter without marking it up. The interesting question to me is why Hills, knowing Lish's own reputation, would send the manuscript to him in the first place."
 
JM: Nabokov sometimes accepted, sometimes ignored E.Wilson's advice regarding a paragraph in a short-story or novel. We can always profit from a little outside help and from the sample I read following your indication of Lish editorial intervention on Carver, his markings made sense (what a wonderful way to practice English and to eliminate "ancillae"). Nevertheless, they carved and hawed Carver away and this is, surely, not recommendable.
 
btw: another mistake of mine in a former posting deserves a correction. There is no real link bt. filisbert, philisbert and philipena - I was carried away by the English translation of the paragraph in Proust and lost my bearings. 
 
 
 
 
 
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A sample of Lish’s editing of Carver is available at the New Yorker site:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/12/24/071224on_onlineonly_carver
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/12/24/071224on_onlineonly_carver>

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