Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Garrett (Continued From Page 1) subject. Plans were formalized for the pre sent form. Working like a madman, Garrett became obsessed with the book. As he worked each sentence in earnest, he was also faced with the problem of finding another publisher. Proving that a good man can't be held down, and a great man beats hell out of his opposition and knocks over the impediments to reach the state in which we consider a person to be "great" or "notable and exulted" or just an unreal wri ter, Garrett sold Doubleday on "Death of a Fox", his masterpiece. At this point, George Garrett looks back on the year since "Death of a Fox" was pub lished. His peers in the elite of American and European master-authors have looked upon "Death of a Fox," scrutinizing the masterpiece. They have nodded their approval of "a job well done in the calm, cool, dignified way in which they must to reserve emotion, knowing that they will have to compete with"Death of a Fox." "I don't want to be classified as a histori cal novelist. That's not my goal. Who read A SEND THE NEi IDear chicken people: Here is my che 'of the paper. Please send it to: Street________ __ gCity__________Sti : all of us C 'Death of a Fox?' People who normally read novels." Due to the recent revival of British histor ical books, flicks, television specials, Gar rett must worry a bit about becoming stereotyped as an historian rather than a fiction writer. To counteract this, he is pre paring for the publication this spring of "The Magic Striptease," a novel conceived during "Death of a Fox", to "keep from going mad." "The Magic Striptease" is a short novel about a guy who develops 'Tom Terrific' abilities to turn himself into other people.' The book will deal with "different adven tures in various shapes and forms," and will be released in April or early- spring some time. Life with Kim Novak in Hell Another comic piece will be, "The Life with Kim Novak in Hell." Garrett is unsure as to the exact content of this. "I've got several thousand pages of manuscript in a file cabinet." The title is from a cover story k. GAMECOK HOl k or$.0,on smstr o $.0 o te ZIP1 ire frustratE in "The National Enquirer" that formerly hung on his wall. Much of it is already pub lished pieces from various magazines and periodicals, starting back in 1967. Dipping into the historical catagory again, Garrett is preparing "an aspect for the Raleigh thing" concerning cor respondence and the relationship between Queen Elizabeth of England and King James of Scotland. Garrett, in discussing this, reiterated the point that he doesn't want to get tagged as an Elizabethan or his torical author. This will be due out in '73 or '74. Other pieces with his name on them will be released or have been released in recent months. Many are anthologies or collections of work done by students from all parts of the country. To his students, this is the supreme compliment. Being the goal of all young wri ters to get published, they find moral as well as informational and recommenda tional help from Garrett. Perhaps Garrett is so dedicated to helping his students because he remembers the inadequacies he faced at Princeton. "I started college in '46. We rioted because they didn't have any contemporary literature. During the summer they would let anyone teach whatever they wanted, so this prof taught a course in contemporary literature. They tried to discontinue it in the fall, so we rioted. We got a half-victory. They gave us a course, but they fired the prof." 'Teaching is a performing art.' "Worksheet" is a typical example of Gar rett using some "weight" to help students gain publication. Being president of Associated Writing Programs, he has helped to revive "Worksheet" and "Intro," both dedicated to the publication of work by students in writing programs across the country. "Teaching is a performing art. You've got to. I've known some great teachers whose acting was hambone. I have a great admira tion for actors as such. All of us are frus trated actors." Garrett has had several experiences with the direction and production of his own plays. A few years ago, back around 1962, upon receiving a Ford Foundation Grant in Drama, Garrett took off for Houston along with Richard Wilbur, and turned our plays in the Alley Theater. Garrett's influences range from Chaucer.("my favorite writer") to John D. McDonald. Besides McDonald, other mys tery writers that intrigue him are Ray Chan dler and Ross McDonald. Another special treat that one may EE I two semesters I W from . Contact M 8-11, I, mmnnn1211 Coill Fd actors encounter during a visit to Garrett's office is a demonstration and critique of football, boxing, and wrestling. The former Wes leyan line coach nostaligically recalls his early days as a player at Princeton and later coaching under "Nate," a former Green Packer. "Nate got there straight from the Pac kers. Man, he took one look at the team and flipped out. He's been playing center with the Packers, All-Pro, ten years. This was his first look at a college team in ten years. He decided that we would have to build a tough defense and a sure touchdown play. So, we became the first college team to have the Greeen Bay Packers punt return stay. All we had to do was get the guys to run to their places and zap! We had a touchdown ... Nate felt that anyone that went out should I get a uniform and play. So, as soon as we were ahead by one point he sent in everyone. The result was, by the end of the year we had great depth. We went undefeated with no talent at all!" Like to fight in Olympics Like his counterpart, James Dickey, Who is apt to demonstrate scenes from 'Deliverance' crawling about on his office floor, Garrett will occasionally demon strate the form that got him to the finals of the Southern Golden Gloves. Discussing the Olympics: "I would have liked to have fought Valdez. Man, for the first time in twenty years I got the urge to get back in the ring. It was really strategic of those television cats. Those films, they'd show them right before a guy got beaten bad, like that swimmer playing the cello, then getting wiped out in the race, finishing way back." Movie plans for "Death of a Fox" are up in the air. Warner Bros. has an option to make the film. After his experiences as a scriptwriter, Garrett commented,"I would n't want to srite my own script. You have to tear up the book to keep the film faithful to the book. I'd prefer to have someone else amputate it, not me." [ELP LNTED 11:00 - 2:00 anager BURGER ege St. KIN