Fare Forward: Letters from David Markson

June 9 ’05

Simsy — or rather, Simsy-san—

I don’t recall ever having seen a Japanese book but for some reason I’d wager that my title will be: Wittgenstein’s Mistress.⁵⁸

Why do I think that?

Meantime, if you read that Carl Shuker book, The Method Actors, (and who knows, you may be a character in it), do let me know what you think. It will please my editor. And, hell, since they publish W.S. Merwin, Gary Snyder, etc., can’t hurt you either, maybe, one day, once I pass it on.

Oh, I forgot. The guy who spoke of “those wonderful folk who brought you Pearl Harbor,”⁵⁹ was Jerry Della Femmina⁶⁰ (or however it’s spelled).

Thine—

David

58 I’d asked him if he thought there’d be a different title for the Japanese version.

59 This was a line he’d quoted to me during our visit, when I’d mentioned my experience in Japan.

60 Jerry Della Femina, an advertising executive and restaurateur who wrote a bestselling book in 1970 called, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War.