Gratefully & Affectionately

Between 1958 and 1976, the Irish American writer Mary Lavin had sixteen stories published in The New Yorker. J. D. Salinger had introduced her to the magazine and she was soon offered the magazine’s highly coveted first-reading agreement. 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.’

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 of the time including Eudora Welty, Frank O’Connor, William Maxwell and John McGahern.

Gráinne Hurley’s first book offers fascinating insight into the lives and careers of two mid-twentieth-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.