Last week, a literary agent sent out the following letter to an unknown number of editors:
“Today you will be receiving via messenger a package containing two completed works of non-fiction, and four proposals for non-fiction works-in-progress. They represent the work of author [redacted], whose disruption and transformation of the non-fiction form will, we believe, one day garner him the highest literary honors. His works will sell millions of copies, and will be translated into hundreds of languages. His name will register in the lexicon of American literature and cultural studies. And his work, by its revolutionary character, will permanently alter the landscape of publishing and the consciousness of the Western reader.”
The author is a former Rolling Stone and Village Voice contributor who went on to launch a self-published, subscription-only magazine “containing no advertisements and no editorial content,” according to the pitch letter, “containing nothing but his own non-fiction pieces.” Now, he’s ready to apply the “profound, disorienting simplicity” of his zine and apply it to book-length projects. “These stories, constructed completely in dialogue, develop out of tape-recorded interviews or conversations, meticulously transcribed and then minimally edited for flow and accuracy,” the pitch continues. “In the absence of a third-person, stylized voice, these stories of unseen, silenced, overlooked, and unknown American men and women emerge, unencumbered by interpretive baggage… In the works of [redacted], we offer something entirely revolutionary in book form, something we believe will revivify not only publishing, but also America’s understanding of itself.”
But just in case you didn’t get the point: “In 1962, John Barth pronounced the death of the novel. In 1967, Tom Wolfe proclaimed the death of journalism. In the past two years, critic Slavoj Zizek and author James Frey have shaken the status of the memoir. So [redacted] transcends, offering a marriage of form and content that alone is able to tell an American True Story.” (That sound you hear is John Dos Passos shoving against the lid of his coffin, ready to come out and strangle somebody.)
One editor who received the proposal said the letter’s tone put him completely off the idea of looking at the actual books and proposals, which were delivered on a CD-ROM. If you’ve gotten this letter, too, and have actually dared to gaze upon the work it celebrates, do tell.) He also questioned the wisdom of trying to get publishers excited in an author of such proposed significance the week before Thanksgiving, with winter sales conferences following soon after. Clearly, however, this author’s genius can not be bound by corporate timetables. The auction continues apace until Monday, December 3.