A fragment of a remarkable interview.
You're both an academic scholar and a feature-film editor who’s been nominated for an Oscar and won an American Cinema Editors Award. Your new book is published—in a beautifully designed and produced edition—by Northwestern University Press. Can you tell us about your association with the university and why a university press?
I debated marketing the book through an agent to trade presses, but the interest in books about filmmakers is not these days what it was in the glory days of the seventies and eighties. For example, Michael Sragow’s absolutely first-class biography of Victor Fleming was clothbound published by a distinguished trade press. Yet despite the fact that his is the first and only biography of Fleming, the man responsible two of the most enduringly popular films ever made, ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and despite superb reviews, the publisher had no interest in the paperback publication, which fell to a university press (Kentucky). So I was concerned that even if a trade publisher could be found who was interested, the manuscript might be awhile making the rounds. But my close friend and erstwhile academic colleague, the great literary critic and biographer Hershel Parker suggested I consider Northwestern University Press, with whom he had published several books, including all the corrected texts of Melville’s work and his own most recent book, ‘Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative’, a wonderful book about his experiences writing his definitive two-volume biography of Melville. Well, Northwestern’s a great press and the prospect of sharing a press with Hershel was a chance I couldn’t pass up. So I sent the manuscript off to NUP, and within three months they got stellar reports to publish from two very distinguished readers, and I’ve never looked back. Northwestern’s been the best group of publishing people I’ve ever dealt with: intelligent, creative, committed, passionate, very solicitous of the author, yet firm and practical when necessary and dedicated to publishing the best book possible out of any manuscript they accept. And as you’ve already pointed out, they did a spectacular job on the book in its design and physical appearance. I couldn’t be more pleased. And with a university press, it’s all about the book itself, the content, how good can it be, not will it sell, will it offend, what’s its market, etc. Another thing about university presses is that if your book is any good, it tends to be around for a long time. You know, counting its first and second editions, my ‘Peckinpah: The Western Films’ and ‘Peckinpah: The Western Films: A Reconsideration’ (University of Illinois Press)—that book has never been out of print since 1980 and it’s still widely regarded as the best critical study of Sam’s work. So, I couldn’t be happier with where the new book landed and the company it keeps in the catalogue. As Pike Bishop might say, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
You're both an academic scholar and a feature-film editor who’s been nominated for an Oscar and won an American Cinema Editors Award. Your new book is published—in a beautifully designed and produced edition—by Northwestern University Press. Can you tell us about your association with the university and why a university press?
I debated marketing the book through an agent to trade presses, but the interest in books about filmmakers is not these days what it was in the glory days of the seventies and eighties. For example, Michael Sragow’s absolutely first-class biography of Victor Fleming was clothbound published by a distinguished trade press. Yet despite the fact that his is the first and only biography of Fleming, the man responsible two of the most enduringly popular films ever made, ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and despite superb reviews, the publisher had no interest in the paperback publication, which fell to a university press (Kentucky). So I was concerned that even if a trade publisher could be found who was interested, the manuscript might be awhile making the rounds. But my close friend and erstwhile academic colleague, the great literary critic and biographer Hershel Parker suggested I consider Northwestern University Press, with whom he had published several books, including all the corrected texts of Melville’s work and his own most recent book, ‘Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative’, a wonderful book about his experiences writing his definitive two-volume biography of Melville. Well, Northwestern’s a great press and the prospect of sharing a press with Hershel was a chance I couldn’t pass up. So I sent the manuscript off to NUP, and within three months they got stellar reports to publish from two very distinguished readers, and I’ve never looked back. Northwestern’s been the best group of publishing people I’ve ever dealt with: intelligent, creative, committed, passionate, very solicitous of the author, yet firm and practical when necessary and dedicated to publishing the best book possible out of any manuscript they accept. And as you’ve already pointed out, they did a spectacular job on the book in its design and physical appearance. I couldn’t be more pleased. And with a university press, it’s all about the book itself, the content, how good can it be, not will it sell, will it offend, what’s its market, etc. Another thing about university presses is that if your book is any good, it tends to be around for a long time. You know, counting its first and second editions, my ‘Peckinpah: The Western Films’ and ‘Peckinpah: The Western Films: A Reconsideration’ (University of Illinois Press)—that book has never been out of print since 1980 and it’s still widely regarded as the best critical study of Sam’s work. So, I couldn’t be happier with where the new book landed and the company it keeps in the catalogue. As Pike Bishop might say, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
No comments:
Post a Comment