The James Jones Literary Society
Newsletter Vol. 12, No. 4 -- Fall, 2003
Where Do We Go from Here?
By Dave Nightingale
My apologies in advance for the use of the tired Dickensian cliché but, in this case, it fits the bill. You see, for the James Jones Literary Society, the year 2003 was indeed “the best of times and the worst of times”—and that serves to present the Society with a huge question in search of the answer: “Where do we go from here?”
The best of times?
- The James Jones First Novel Fellowship competition has been so successful in its first dozen years of existence, under the guidance of Mike Lennon, that the Society finally has been able to fulfill a long-time goal and raise the annual first prize award to $10,000. That’s larger than most, if not all, of comparable literary financial awards.
Ten of those 12 Fellowship winners either have published his or her novel or have a novel “in press.”
-
The University of Chicago Press soon will re-issue “Whistle,” the final novel in Jones’s World War II trilogy. The motion picture of “Whistle,” with David Mamet planning to write the screenplay and direct, still is a work in progress with a scheduled, if perhaps optimistic, completion date in 2005.
Such would coincide with holding that year’s JJLS symposium in Memphis, Tenn., where Jones began writing the final part of the trilogy while he was hospitalized there.
-
Akashic Books of Brooklyn soon will re-issue Jones’s “The Merry Month of May” with new preface material by both author Larry Heinemann and JJLS Director Judy Everson.
Akashic has published two of Kaylie Jones’s last three novels, the just-released “Speak Now” and the better-known (so far) “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries”, and—no doubt at Kaylie’s behest— also re-issued James Jones’s “The Ice Cream Headache and Other Stories.”
-
The JJLS has gone to some length to have “Headache” placed in schools around the country to show people that Jones was very capable of writing material other than war novels. In fact, thanks to JJLS Director Diane Reed, “Headache” now is a first-time-ever English Literature textbook at even Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill.
That’s the place where
the Society was founded, folks. It’s James Jones’s home town,
of course. It’s also the town where books that include the “f-word”
barely can make it past the city limits in broad daylight,
let alone be considered as suggested or required reading at
either the high school or junior college level.
Yes sir, and madam,
the JJLS really was on a roll this year.
But it wasn’t exactly
a “sweet” roll, because to dredge up another one of those horrible
clichés: “What if we gave a party and nobody came?”
The sad organizational membership numbers are these:
-
At the time of the Austin symposium in October, the JJLS had only 216 members, down 22.3 percent from 1998. And of those 216 members, only 83 per cent were (dues-paying) members in good standing.
But the sorriest statistics of all, as of mid-October, were these:
-
Of the 12 budding novelists we financially enriched with Fellowship honors over the past 11 years, four were delinquent in their dues, one was purged from the membership list for lack of dues payments and two never even bothered to join the Society.
It seems what we have here is sort of a situation where the hands that feed are being bitten.
So, where DOES the JJLS go from here? Perhaps in several directions—and
hopefully none of them in a willy-nilly manner.
First, some (not all) of our symposium programs have to be
geared more to Joe Six-Pack than to academicians. They have to feature
headliners who can literally pull the general public through the
convention doors and, therefore, onto our membership lists.
The biggest membership surge in recent history came after
the 1999 symposium at Southampton, NY, which featured William
Styron, Norman Mailer, Budd Schulberg, Joseph Heller and Betty
Comden Kyle. Admittedly, this was a once-in-a-lifetime type of event
since all of the aforementioned waived their appearance fees.
(The convention cost without such waivers would have been in the
six-figure range.)
Also, there was another surge in interest, albeit brief, after
the 2002 Paris conclave, which was headlined by Mailer and his
wife Norris and the late George Plimpton. (More Society members
went to Paris than to Austin in 2003—understandable, perhaps, but
they still did so in spite of incurring considerably greater expenses.)
And we are actively seeking well-known headliners for the 2004
symposium in Robinson, which will deal with Jones’s novel “Some
Came Running.” There are no guarantees yet, of course, but the attempt
is being made.
Yet, dollar signs and stark realities prevent really big shows from happening every year. So, we should also consider some bare bones stuff, some new bare bones stuff.
It was strongly suggested at the Austin symposium that the
JJLS send a delegation to some kind of annual national literary
assemblage—like perhaps the American Literature Assn. meeting in
San Francisco next May 27-30—to spread our Society’s word; to tell
our peers of the advantages of joining; and, yes, to flat-out recruit.
At this time, literary societies associated with Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Dreiser, Herman Melville, Sinclair Lewis and Philip Roth are among those who set up shop at the ALA get-togethers and you can bet the just-formed Norman Mailer Society surely will be represented in San Francisco next year.
Other bare bones approaches that were considered in Austin
included asking the Society directors to make more speeches and
power point presentations at local service clubs to create interest
in JJLS—and also “directing” each of the 27 directors to personally
recruit five new members a year. (Let’s see: 27 times five equals
135 new members annually. Not bad, on paper. But, we shall see….)
The bottom line here, though, is that all of this “Save Our
Society” routine shouldn’t fall on just the heads of the directors.
It also should be a mission of faith for the other 175 card-carrying
“Friends of Jones.”
If you originally felt like committing $250 for a lifetime
membership in the Society, there was a presumption that you had
more than a fleeting interest in the advancement of the author and
the preservation of his works.
Therefore, why shouldn’t you always be seeking additional
members who share your beliefs?
And even if you choose to spend only the standard 15 bucks
for an annual membership, it’s certainly not against the law to
have the same zeal for the advancement of the Society as do the
“lifers.”
As JJLS Director Warren Mason recently observed: “We may not
be the Red Cross but we sure do need some new blood.”
Was he correct? You could go to the bank on it.----
Malick Returns to the Spotlight
--Very Briefly
It’s one thing to plan to give enigmatic film director Terrence
Malick an honor. It’s quite another to hog-tie him long enough
to actually put the award into his hands.
Case in point: The James Jones Literary Society annual symposium,
held at the University of Texas-Austin on October 11.
The Society had voted to give its 2003 Lifetime Achievement
Award to Malick, who not only directed the motion picture of
James Jones’s novel “The Thin Red Line” in 1998 but also had
the screenplay credit.
And what better place to make the presentation of the plaque
and the $1,000 winner’s check than in Austin?
After all, Malick lives in that city. And he and his wife
even agreed to co-host a cocktail reception after the symposium,
which officially acknowledged the opening to scholars and the
general public of the James Jones memorabilia collection at the
UT-A’s Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.
One minor problem: Terry and Ecky (Alexandra) Malick had
made previous plans to go whitewater rafting on the Colorado River
on October 11.
Sort of “hosts” from afar, you might say.
It took all of the persuasive wiles of two close friends--the
Society’s Kaylie Jones and husband Kevin Heisler—to convince
the Malicks to stay on dry land that weekend.
“I like my anonynmity,” said Malick. “But because of my
ties with James Jones and his daughter, I agreed to accept the
award—as long as no members of the press or photographers were
present. You can call me shy or reclusive if you wish, but I’ve
been burned too many times by the media in the past.”
He did not elaborate.
The JJLS Life Achievement Award plaque to Malick was inscribed:
“In recognition of more than thirty years of innovative, profoundly
philosophical and literary contributions to the world of film.”
Malick, who will celebrate his 60th birthday on November
30, was born in Waco, TX, and went on to earn a philosophy degree
from Harvard and to study at Oxford University’s Magdalen College
as a Rhodes Scholar.
His first two major film-directing successes were “Badlands”
in 1973 and “Days of Heaven” in 1978 but he then mysteriously disappeared
from the motion picture scene (moving to Paris, France) before
surfacing nearly 20 years later to direct “The Thin Red Line”
and to receive two Oscar nominations for that work.
Despite his long layoff, Malick’s directorial reputation
was such that many actors, among them Nick Nolte and Jim Caviezel,
were willing to appear for Screen Actors Guild minimum salaries
in “The Thin Red Line” so they could work under him.
The director now says he’s back in action for awhile, sort
of.
“Right now, we’re trying to line up financing for the film
‘Che,’ which is about Che Guevara’s years in Bolivia after leaving
Cuba,” he said.
One other thing about the JJLS presentation to Malick: “I
told Kaylie that I would accept the ($1,000) check but only for
presentation purposes,” he said, “and that I would immediately
return it to the Jones Society after the presentation.”
He was a man of his word.
--Dave Nightingale
Laine Cunningham Recipient of 11th Annual
James Jones First Novel Fellowship
(October 10, 2003) -- The contest
is administered by the University's Humanities Division and by
the James Jones Literary Society.
The Humanities Division at Wilkes University and the James
Jones Literary Society recently announced the winner of this year’s
James Jones First Novel Fellowship.
Laine Cunningham’s manuscript, The Message Stick,
was chosen out of 647 submissions to the contest. She will receive
the $6,000 first prize on October 11, 2003 at the Society’s annual
symposium at the University of Texas in Austin. The late James Jones
is the author of From Here to Eternity (1951) and The Thin
Red Line (1962).
Wilkes University’s Humanities Division
administers the contest which was established in 1992 to honor
the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination, and insight into
modern culture exemplified by James Jones.
Set in the Australian Outback, The Message Stick
is both a murder story and a subtle examination of the contemporary
clash of cultures that continues there.
“Ms. Cunningham’s novel demonstrates a mastery of psychological
introspection and an uncanny feel for the spirit of place,” said
Dr. J. Michael Lennon, a manuscript judge and President of the
Society.
Cunningham began pursuing her writing career in 1994. While
publishing articles, short stories and poems, she also set up
an editorial service to assist other authors and small presses.
Cunningham has taught fiction and nonfiction writing to adults through
a variety of arts organizations including The Loft, the nation’s
largest independent literary center.
She has twice received writing fellowships from the Jerome
Foundation and has attended residencies at the New York Mills Cultural
Center and Cornucopia Arts Center. In 1999, her short story won
an award from Writer’s Digest magazine and her creative nonfiction
manuscript won second place at the California Focus on Writers
conference.
The judges for this year’s contest were Kaylie Jones, the
novelist daughter of James Jones and Wilkes University professors:
Dr. Patricia Heaman, Professor Emeritus of English and Dr. J.
Michael Lennon, Professor of English.
The James Jones First Novel Fellowship welcomes inquiries
on the contest. Requests for guidelines should be sent with S.A.S.E.
to James Jones First Novel Fellowship, c/o Humanities Department,
Kirby Hall, Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, PA 18766, or via email
to english@wilkes.edu.
Submission deadline is March 1st of each year.
Fifty Years Ago....
|
Photos from the 13th Annual James Jones Symposium
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
University of Texas at Austin
October 11, 2003
Wesleyan (CT) University librarian Barbara Jones (left), New York City novelist Kaylie Jones (center) and Professor Emerita Judith Everson of the University of Illinois-Springfield conduct a panel discussion entitled “New Research Opportunities in the James Jones Papers” at the 2003 James Jones Literary Society Symposium. All three are members of the JJLS Board of Directors.
Dr. Morris Dickstein (second from right), Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York, meets with three members of the James Jones Literary Society Board of Directors. Sackrider (left) of Key Biscayne, FL; Kaylie Jones (second from left) of New York City and Jim Barham of Champaign, IL. Dr. Dickstein gave the symposium keynote address and received the Society’s prestigious George Hendrick Research Award. Sackrider is a former JJLS president; Jones a highly-successful novelist in her own right; Barham is the newest Society director.
Robert Taylor (right) of the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, was in charge of processing the HRC’s James Jones collection that went on display in October, talks shop with James Jones Literary Society archivist-historian Tom Wood of Springfield, Illinois. The Texas collection is the largest assemblage of Jones papers in the world, providing a valuable site for scholarly research about the late author.
Talking Shop
--Tom Wood, Archivist,
University of Illinois at SpringfieldAt the evening reception after the Jones Symposium I talked at length to Robert Taylor, who processed the wonderful and extensive collection of Jones Papers at UT-Austin’s Ransom Humanities Center. Of course we talked about James Jones. I was impressed by his knowledge of Jones – but not surprised.
Apart from countless hours of arranging, sorting and weeding, processing a large archival collection such as the Jones Papers at UT-A or the Handy Colony Collection at the University of Illinois at Springfield requires a thorough and detailed knowledge of the creators of the documents, as well as their families, relations, friends, enemies and associates.
In order to make sense of the thousands of documents in such collections, the processor must know their context: the relationships between senders and recipients, their place in the chronology of events, who was who, who was where when, what was what. Thus, by the end of the process, the processor has inevitably acquired an intimate and detailed knowledge of the creators of the documents and their social circles. Needless to say, Bob and I had a lot to talk about.
Copyright
All photographs in Vol. 12, No. 4 of this publication are copyrighted by the James Jones Literary Society, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation chartered by the state of Illinois. Any reproduction or re-publication of any of them without the express written permission of the Society is strictly prohibited.
