Friday, August 07, 2015

'Don't be a prima donna, Doris' … and other advice. University of East Anglia opens writers' letters

The University of East Anglia is publishing archived private correspondence from novelists such as Doris Lessing, JD Salinger and WG Sebald to inspire today’s students of creative writing

Doris Lessing in 1962.
Doris Lessing in 1962. Photograph: Stuart Heydinger for the Observer
“Don’t,” a young Doris Lessing is advised as she tries to find a publisher for her first novel, The Grass is Singing, “be a prima donna till you are one.”

The previously unseen letter from literary agent Margaret Macpherson in which this advice appears dates from 1949, almost 60 years before Lessing went on to win the Nobel prize for literature. Lessing had told Macpherson she had been asked to alter the theme of her debut, but the agent said she couldn’t agree.
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