May 21
Gordon Wise on building Mary Renault's literary legacy
dty
Mary, although I can’t call you to find out, I’d like to hope you’re pleased......
So says Gordon Wise in this really lovely tribute to her, written in 2013. He writes about how he discovered Mary Renault when he was given her back catalogue to take care of at the publishers Curtis Brown.
Here he talks about how much work went into reviving Renault's back catalogue, the limited but precious archive hunted down by her biographers, and small ways in which he overruled her to ensure her full catalogue was preserved and promoted for modern audiences.
I never realised how much I've taken for granted about the curation of her books. Well worth a read for Renault fans.