Thursday, December 19, 2013

nor sleet, nor gloom of night


Found this yesterday in a bottom drawer I haven’t opened for lo these many years.
First off, the stamp.  A quick google tells us that the buying power of that stamp today would be 29 cents, so it really was a bargain.  And let's consider what service it bought..
For starters, I hadn’t been on the faculty at Westbrook for more than a year.
Next, there’s no street address given -- and in addition, we'd moved just a few months before.
And – my last name was no longer Handleman.
That envelope reached me just fine. 

So what did the letter say?  I re-read it last week – can’t seem to find it now.  Maybe it got into the throw-out pile. 
In it, that literary agent assured me he was still interested in the book I was writing.  I seem to remember he'd contacted me after seeing an article I’d written in a national magazine, and we had indeed discussed a book.  But what do you suppose it was to be about?
Beats me. 
By the date of that postmark I’d married and was happy as clam with a new baby. 
Did not publish my first book until 30 years later.  It was a real estate textbook.

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