Read Daily Rituals: How Artists Work Online
Authors: Mason Currey
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #Biography, #Writing, #Art, #History
On writing days in Oregon, Malamud rose at 7:30, exercised for ten minutes, ate breakfast, and arrived at his office by 9:00. A full morning of writing usually amounted to only a page, two at best. After lunch, he revised the morning’s output, then returned home around 4:00. A short nap preceded domestic activities: dinner at 6:15, conversation with the family, help with the children’s homework. After the kids went to sleep, Malamud read for three hours—he usually spent half the time on fiction, half on nonfiction connected to his stories and novels—before going to sleep at midnight.
Although he was a creature of habit, Malamud was wary of placing too much importance on his particular work rituals. He told an interviewer:
There’s no one way—there’s too much drivel about this subject. You’re who you are, not Fitzgerald or Thomas Wolfe. You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter. If he or she is not disciplined, no sympathetic magic will help. The trick is to make time—not steal it—and produce the fiction. If the stories come, you get them written, you’re on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.
Mason Currey was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Currey’s writing has appeared in
Slate
,
Metropolis
, and
Print
, where he is an editor. He lives in Brooklyn.
For more information, please visit
www.aaknopf.com
My first debt is to the hundreds of writers and editors whose works I consulted for this collection; without their original scholarship, this book would have been impossible. In addition, several creative professionals took time out of their busy schedules to answer my questions about their routines and working habits (and, in the end, I was unable to include all of their contributions). I am grateful to them for their generosity.
This book may never have happened without my agent, Megan Thompson, who e-mailed me out of the blue, convinced me that my
Daily Routines
blog could be a successful book, and found a perfect home for it at Knopf. Her colleagues Sandy Hodgman and Molly Reese have been extremely helpful along the way. I would also like to thank Laurence Kirshbaum for his support.
At Knopf, I was fortunate to have Victoria Wilson as my editor. She gave me the freedom to do this book exactly as I wanted to but then did not let it move forward until it met her high standards. The results are greatly improved by her good judgment. Her colleagues Carmen Johnson and Daniel Schwartz took care of countless details with unflagging patience and aplomb. Many thanks to the jacket designer, Jason Booher; the text designer, Maggie Hinders; and the production editor, Victoria Pearson.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Martin Pedersen, who helped me hang on to my day job and did me the great kindness of constantly asking how the book was coming along. Belinda Lanks, James Ryerson, and Michael Silverberg were among the first people to see the
Daily Routines
blog, and their enthusiasm and suggestions were vital to its success. Many readers of the blog also wrote with leads, some of which proved invaluable; I was lucky to have such an intelligent and engaged audience. Lindy Hess gave me advice on the publishing business. Stephen Kozlowski lent his superior eye for the author photo.
All of my friends and family have been incredibly encouraging during this long process. I would particularly like to thank my mom; my dad; my stepmom, Barbee; and my brother, Andrew, for their total, unwavering support. Finally, my own daily routine would be very dull without my wife, Rebecca, who is a constant source of joy and inspiration.
For each entry in the book, I have provided reference information for my source or sources, keyed to the subject’s name. When there are multiple sources, I have listed them in approximate order of their importance—that is, in how much I relied upon them for the entry. After that, I have also provided the exact location of all quotes and a number of specific details and assertions. I hope that this will make it easy for readers to find more information on particular subjects’ routines, habits, quirks, and foibles.
1.
“Who can unravel”:
Thomas Mann,
Death in Venice
, trans. Michael Henry Heim (New York: Ecco, 2005), 88.
2.
“Tell me what
”: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin,
The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy
, trans. M. F. K. Fisher (1949; repr. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1999), 3.
3.
“free our minds”:
Quoted in Robert D. Richardson,
William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 121.
4.
“Sooner or later”:
V. S. Pritchett, “Gibbon and the Home Guard,” in
Complete Collected Essays
(New York: Random House, 1991), 4.
5.
“
time is short”:
Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer, November 1, 1912, in
Letters to Felice
, ed. Erich Heller and Jürgen Born, trans. James Stern and Elisabeth Duckworth (New York: Schocken Books, 1973), 21–2.
6.
W. H. Auden
: Humphrey Carpenter,
W. H. Auden: A Biography
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981); Richard
Davenport-Hines,
Auden
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1995); Stephen Spender, ed.,
W. H. Auden: A Tribute
(New York: Macmillan, 1975).
7.
“Routine, in an”:
Quoted in Davenport-Hines, 298.
8.
“He checks his”:
Quoted in Carpenter, 391.
9.
“A modern stoic”:
Quoted in Davenport-Hines, 298.
10.
“Only the ‘Hitlers’ ”:
Quoted in Spender, 173.
11.
“the chemical life”:
Quoted in Carpenter, 265.
12.
“labor-saving devices”:
Quoted in Davenport-Hines, 186.
13.
Francis Bacon:
Michael Peppiatt,
Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996).
14.
“essentially a creature”:
Ibid., 101.
15.
“I often like”:
Quoted ibid., 161.
16.
Simone de Beauvoir:
Interview with Bernard Frechtman and Madeleine Gobeil, “The Art of Fiction No. 35: Simone de Beauvoir,”
Paris Review
, Spring–Summer 1965,
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4444/the-art-of-fiction-no-35-simone-de-beauvoir
; Deirdre Bair,
Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography
(New York: Touchstone, 1990); Louis Menand, “Stand By Your Man,”
New Yorker
, September 26, 2005,
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/09/26/050926crbo_books
.
17.
“I’m always in”:
Interview with Frechtman and Gobeil.
18.
Generally, Beauvoir worked:
Bair, 359–60.
19.
“On the first”:
Quoted ibid., 444.
20.
Thomas Wolfe:
David Herbert Donald,
Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1987).
21.
“amazing speed”:
Quoted ibid., 237.
22.
“penis remained limp”:
Quoted ibid.
23.
“male configurations”:
Quoted ibid.
24.
“
priming himself with”:
Ibid., 246.
25.
Patricia Highsmith:
Andrew Wilson,
Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith
(London: Bloomsbury, 2003).
26.
“There is no”:
Quoted ibid., 324.
27.
like rats have:
Ibid., 8.
28.
“Her favourite technique”:
Ibid., 123.
29.
“not to perk”:
Ibid., 141.
30.
“she only ever”:
Quoted ibid., 323.
31.
“they give me”:
Quoted ibid., 135.
32.
Federico Fellini:
Hollis Alpert,
Fellini: A Life
(1986; repr.
New York: Paragon House, 1988); Bert Cardullo, ed.,
Federico Fellini: Interviews
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006).
33.
“I’m up at six”
: Quoted in Alpert, 264.
34.
“A writer can”
: Interview with Gideon Bachmann,
Film Book I
, ed. Robert Hughes (New York: Grove, 1959), in Cardullo, 16.
35.
Ingmar Bergman:
Raphael Shargel, ed.,
Ingmar Bergman: Interviews
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007); Michiko Kakutani, “Ingmar Bergman: Summing Up a Life in Film,”
New York Times Magazine
, June 6, 1983,
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/06/magazine/26kaku.html
.
36.
“Do you know”
: Interview with Cynthia Grenier,
Playboy
, June 1964, in Shargel, 38.
37.
“He constantly eats”
: Interview with Richard Meryman, “I Live at the Edge of a Very Strange Country,”
Life
, October 15, 1971, in Shargel, 107.
38.
“I never use”
: Ibid., 103.
39.
“I have been”
: Quoted in Kakutani.
40.
Morton Feldman:
Chris Villars, ed. and trans.,
Morton Feldman Says: Selected Interviews and Lectures 1964–1987
(London: Hyphen, 2006); B. H. Friedman, ed.,
Give My Regards to Eighth Street: Collected Writings of Morton Feldman
(Cambridge, MA: Exact Change, 2000).
41.
“I live here”
: Interview with Martine Cadieu in Villars, 39.
42.
“the most important”
: Morton Feldman, “Darmstadt Lecture,” July 26, 1984, in Villars, 204.
43.
“My concern at times”
: Morton Feldman, “The Anxiety of Art,”
Art in America
, September/October 1973, in Friedman, 30.
44.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Emily Anderson, trans. and ed.,
The Letters of Mozart and His Family
, 3rd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1985); Peter Gay,
Mozart
(New York: Viking Penguin, 1999).
45.
“My hair is always”
: Mozart to his sister, February 17, 1782, in Anderson, 797.
46.
“Altogether I have”:
Mozart to his father, December 28, 1782, in Anderson, 833.
47.
“It is impossible”:
Leopold Mozart to his daughter, March 12, 1785, in Anderson, 888.
48.
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Anton Felix Schindler,
Beethoven As I Knew Him
, ed. Donald W. MacArdle, trans. Constance S. Jolly (1860; repr. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1996); Maynard Solomon,
Beethoven
, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998).
49.
“Washing and bathing”:
Schindler, 386.
50.
Søren Kierkegaard:
Joakim Garff,
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography
, trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005).
51.
“at least fifty”:
Quoted ibid., 290.
52.
“Kierkegaard had”:
Ibid., 291.
53.
Voltaire
: Roger Pearson,
Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom
(New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2005); Haydn Mason,
Voltaire: A Biography
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981).
54.
recorded Voltaire’s routine:
Pearson, 355.
55.
Wagnière estimated that:
Mason, 134.
56.
“I love the cell”:
Quoted ibid.
57.
Benjamin Franklin:
Benjamin Franklin,
The Autobiography and Other Writings
, ed. Peter Shaw (New York: Bantam Books, 1982); H. W. Brands,
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
, 2nd ed. (New York: Anchor Books, 2002).
58.
“moral perfection”:
Franklin, 75.
59.
“Let all your things”:
Ibid., 76.
60.
“I have found it”:
Quoted in Brands, 411.
61.
Anthony Trollope:
Anthony Trollope,
An Autobiography
(1883; repr. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1922); Pamela Neville-Sington,
Fanny Trollope: The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman
(New York: Viking, 1997).
62.
“It was my practice”:
Trollope, 236–7.
63.
mother, Francis Trollope:
Neville-Sington, 255.
64.
Jane Austen:
Park Honan,
Jane Austen: Her Life
(New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1987); James Edward Austen-Leigh,
Memoir of Jane Austen
(1926; repr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967); Carol Shields,
Jane Austen
(New York: Viking Penguin, 2001).
65.
“subject to all”:
Austen-Leigh, 102.
66.
Austen rose early:
Honan, 264.
67.
“Composition seems to”:
Quoted in Shields, 123.
68.
Frédéric Chopin:
Jim Samson,
Chopin
(New York: Schirmer Books, 1996); Frederick Niecks,
Frederick Chopin As a Man and Musician
, vol. 2 (1888; repr. Neptune City, NJ: Paganiniana, 1980).
69.
“His creation was”:
Quoted in Niecks, 132.
70.
“I dared not”:
Ibid.
71.
Gustave Flaubert:
Francis Steegmuller,
Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait
(1939; repr. New York: New York Review of Books, 2005); Frederick Brown,
Flaubert: A Biography
(New York: Little, Brown, 2006); Henry Troyat,
Flaubert
, trans. Joan Pinkham (New York: Viking, 1992).
72.
already looking middle-aged:
Steegmuller, 216.
73.
“Last night I began”:
Quoted in Troyat, 111.
74.
Flaubert woke at 10:00:
Brown, 293, and Steegmuller, 239–41.
75.
“Sometimes I don’t”:
Quoted in Troyat, 117.
76.
“Bovary
is not”:
Quoted ibid., 126.
77.
Together they would:
Steegmuller, 241.
78.
“After all”:
Quoted in Troyat, 173.
79.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:
Julia Frey,
Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life
(New York: Viking, 1994); Jad Adams,
Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2004).
80.
One of his inventions:
Adams, 132.
81.
“
a peacock’s tail”:
Quoted ibid.
82.
“I expect to burn”:
Quoted in Frey, 242.
83.
Thomas Mann:
Anthony Heilbut,
Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature
(1995; repr. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997); Ronald Hayman,
Thomas Mann: A Biography
(New York: Scribner, 1995).
84.
“Every passage becomes”:
Quoted in Heilbut, 207.
85.
“clench the teeth”:
Quoted ibid.
86.
Karl Marx:
Isaiah Berlin,
Karl Marx: His Life and Environment
, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); Francis Wheen,
Karl Marx: A Life
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2000); Michael Evans,
Karl Marx
(Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1975); Werner Blumenberg,
Karl Marx: An Illustrated Biography
, trans. Douglas Scott (1972; repr. London: Verso, 1998).
87.
“His mode of living”:
Berlin, 143.
88.
He never had:
Evans, 32.
89.
“I must pursue”:
Quoted ibid.
90.
Marx relied on:
Wheen, 160.
91.
“I don’t suppose”:
Quoted ibid., 234.
92.
“could neither sit”:
Blumenberg, 100.
93.
“You know that”:
Quoted in Evans, 33.
94.
Sigmund Freud:
Peter Gay,
Freud: A Life for Our Time
(1988; repr. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998); Martin Freud,
Sigmund Freud: Man and Father
(New York: Vanguard Press, 1958); Louis Breger,
Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision
(New York: Wiley, 2000).
95.
“I cannot imagine”:
Quoted in Gay, 157.
96.
“
My father marched”:
Freud, 27.
97.
“My boy, smoking”:
Quoted in Gay, 170.
98.
Carl Jung:
Ronald Hayman,
A Life of Jung
(1999; repr. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001); Carl Jung,
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
, ed. Aniela Jaffé, trans. Richard and Clara Winston, rev. ed. (1961; repr. New York: Vintage Books, 1989).
99.
“If a man”:
Quoted in Hayman, 250.
100.
“I’ve realized that”:
Quoted ibid., 310.
101.
“spent a long time”:
Ibid., 251.
102.
“At Bollingen I”:
Jung, 225–6.
103.
Gustav Mahler:
Alma Mahler,
Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters
, ed. Donald Mitchell, trans. Basil Creighton (1946; repr. New York: Viking Press, 1969); Henry-Louis De La Grange,
Gustav Mahler
, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).