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The Egan piece in the New York Times, concerning Stegner's difficulties with the East Coast literary establishment, brings to mind something I heard from Steve Frazee more than 20 years ago.
Steve was my neighor here in Salida, and during the 1950s and 60s, he wrote a lot of novels, some contemporary (like More Damn Tourists), but most of them Westerns (The Way Through the Mountains, The Shining Mountains, etc.). I interviewed him once for a profile for the Denver Post book section, and we got to talking about the book-publishing industry.
It works like this,
Steve said in his gravelly
voice. If a book takes place on one block of 38th Street
in Manhattan, it is of universal import and interest. If it
takes place on this half of the continent, it's a regional
book at best, and of interest only to a tiny segment of
readers.
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