Overview

Between 1958 and 1976, the Irish American writer Mary Lavin had sixteen stories published in The New Yorker, after J. D. Salinger introduced her to the magazine. It was a prolific time for Lavin, helped in no small part by her close working relationship with her chief editor there, Rachel MacKenzie. They wrote nearly four-hundred letters to each other, the topics of which ranged from story edits to holiday plans, windfalls and legal troubles, mutual literary friends and their love of gardening, promotions and health emergencies. Within a year of working together, they were ending their letters with ‘love’, ‘gratefully’ and ‘affectionately’. Lavin was soon offered the magazine’s highly coveted first-reading agreement. Gráinne Hurley’s impressive debut, Gratefully & Affectionately: Mary Lavin & The New Yorker, draws extensively from Lavin and MacKenzie’s letters as well as other material related to the revered magazine. It explores the collaborative relationship between this writer and her editor, Lavin’s own writing process, the inner workings and editing procedures of The New Yorker and the process of publishing a story from manuscript to print during its heyday. The book also reveals Lavin’s professional dealings with agents and publishers and her friendships with prominent literary figures including Eudora Welty, Frank O’Connor, William Maxwell and John McGahern. Gratefully & Affectionately offers fascinating insight into the lives and careers of two mid-20th-century women, working on either side of the Atlantic and inhabiting the small but hallowed world of literary publishing. It reveals how their fortunate union and combined love for the written word produced some of Lavin’s finest work.

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9781848409293

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Reviews

Mary Lavin and Rachel MacKenzie’s relationship was a supportive and respectful collaboration between two thoughtful and intelligent women. Their relationship produced some of Lavin’s finest work, and this fascinating book honours them both. -- Henrietta McKervey

Author Information

GRÁINNE HURLEY holds a PhD in Contemporary Irish Literature from University College Dublin and is a former English Literature lecturer and drama teacher. Her ground-breaking work on Mary Lavin and The New Yorker has been cited in various publications including Seamus Deane’s Small World (2021), The Oxford Book of Irish Fiction (2020) and Elke D’hoker’s Irish Women Writers and the Modern Short Story (2016). In March 2023, Gráinne was appointed writer-in-residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.  

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