DL/A-Z//GOTT/1 - [Correspondence with Robert Gottlieb: the New York Times interview]

DL/A-Z//GOTT/1

Sub-file

[Correspondence with Robert Gottlieb: the New York Times interview]

1982

10 Letters (typescript and MS)
1 Reprints

Octagon Press
New York Times

Hazleton, Lesley

Gottlieb, Robert

001 is a letter from Lesley Hazleton to Doris Lessing. She states that she has just finished an article for the New York Times based on an interview she conducted with Lessing. She proposes adapting the interview into a piece for Grand Street magazine too. She discusses politics in the Middle East and requests information about Octagon Press.

002 is a letter from Hazleton to Lessing. It is conversational in tone. She thanks Lessing for an Octagon brochure and describes her time at a writers' retreat in MacDowell, New York.

003 is a letter from Hazleton to Lessing. She encloses her interview of Lessing, and complains that it has been severely cut.

004 is a photocopy of Hazleton's article about Lessing, Doris Lessing on Feminism, Communism and 'Space Fiction', from the New York Times Magazine 25/07/1982. She discussed Sufism, her past of political activism, space fiction, her time in Rhodesia and R.D. Laing

005 is a letter from Lessing to Bob Gottlieb, complaining about inaccuracies in Hazleton's article and requesting he use his influence to get a letter of riposte published in the New York Times Magazine. Lessing reproaches Gottlieb for not allowing her to vet the article or assuming that such a "gossip column level" article could do her any good. Mentions Jonathan Schell and an unpublished article on nuclear disarmament.

006 is a letter from Lessing to the New York Times Magazine, pointing out a few of [implicitly] many inaccuracies in Hazleton's article, including her having a telephone and drinking coffee.

007 is a letter from Martin Arnold of the New York Times Magazine refuting some of Lessing's claims and conceding others. He apologises. Cheekily, he then suggests Lessing write an article for them.

008 is a letter from Gottlieb to Lessing. He explains that the New York Times Magazine will not run her letter of riposte. He advises she let the issue lie. Discusses Sufism and Judaism.

009 is an angry letter from Lessing to Arnold complaining about his newpaper's slipshod standards and responding angrily to the news that he found information about her earnings from her publishers.

010 is a letter from Gottlieb to Lessing: "Returning herewith the Times correspondence. Little do they know whom they're dealing with when you get the bit between your teeth!!!"

011 is a letter from Arnold to Lessing. "I do not think that publishing a letter from you about whether or not you drink coffee or have a telephone will raise our discussion to the level that you are seeking." He points out that journalists can seek people's financial information as part of their job.