DL/A-Z//AUSTIN/3 - [Correspondence with David Austin 1997-2001: waiting and rejection]

DL/A-Z//AUSTIN/3

Sub-file

[Correspondence with David Austin 1997-2001: waiting and rejection]

1997-31/10/2001

1 Letters (typescript and MS)
3 Greetings cards
9 Postcards
1 Fax

Bloomsbury Publishing
Penguin Books

Austin, David

017 is an undated postcard from David Austin to Doris Lessing. He mentions reading Joseph Mitchell's Joe Gould's Secret: "the divide here between writer and subject is troubling for me". Mentions being ready to start a new book.

018 is a fax from Austin to Lessing rearranging a meeting.

019 is a postcard from Austin to Lessing. He thanks her for her support with A Clear Calling. Mentions that the book is being read by agents or publishers: "I wonder what they will think." Mentions the writing process.

020 is a postcard from Austin to Lessing: "They've had my MS for some time now & I don't know whether you've heard anything or whether you should have yet but I imagine, if the response was favourable, we would have had some kind of feed back?" Mentions the process of writing a second book. Expresses resignation and anxiety regarding the old book.

021 is an undated greetings card from Austin to Lessing [likely in response to Lessing's reply to 020]: "I must sound like an anxious child! Of course it is worth waiting. Of course you're right. Just a surge of the jitters I suppose." Mentions farming.

022-025 are postcards from Austin to Lessing. He mentions the process of writing, farming, his back injury, Lessing's dead dog, Lessing's trip to Dublin [see DL/A-Z//ASSOCIATION O], Lessing's back injury, and the weather.

026 is a letter from Liz Calder of Bloomsbury publishing to Lessing: "Yes, please send me A Clear Calling by David Austen. Is he the rose man?" [he is not]

027 is a postcard from Austin to Lessing. Mentions Lessing's Mara and Dann and a putative sequel to The Fifth Child. Mentions writing his second book and farming.

028 is a greetings card from Austin to Lessing. Mentions Penguin publishers: "About Penguin, you are kindness. I don't know how to tell you how much I appreciate this." Mentions a sequel to The Fifth Child. Mentions the weather and farming.

029 is a postcard from Austin to Lessing. Mentions farming and the weather. Mentions writing and publishing: "Although I sense a negative from Stuart [illegible – Proffitt?] on A Clear Calling, when the children return to school I shall get back to the book with force and finish it this winter."

030 is a greetings card from Austin to Lessing. He mentions retiring from farming and the economic pressures on farmers. He discusses re-working the structure of A Clear Calling.