R.I.P. Robert Coover (1932-October 5, 2024) [by Stacey Lehman]

Ed. note: I just learned that Robert Coover died on October 5, 2024. I read and loved several of his books. I had a terrific chapbook of his short-short stories "In Bed One Night and Other Brief Encounters". One of the "encounters" describes a rolicking night in a convention hotel that makes me wonder if he was describing an experience at the MLA or AWP. Unfortunately, the chapbook went the way of books that are loaned to friends: I no longer have it. Here's a post I wrote way back in 2009. Don't forget to read the comments:

 

A Tale (Tail) of Two Covers [by Stacey Harwood]

 

David Yezzi’s post a few days ago about Philip Larkin prompted this post by Jim Cummins, which prompted a comment string about Robert Coover’s Spanking the Maid, a book I read and loved when it was published in 1982 (Grove). I was living in Albany, NY at the time and Coover came through to promote another book. When I asked him about Spanking, he told me that the book was really about “language.”  I was confused, felt dumb.  The book I read was about the S&M relationship between a man and his maid. Oh well.

Anyway, Jim Cummins hasn’t read the book, though he would like to, so I did a quick search to see if it is still in print.  It most certainly is, yet with a different cover than the Coover I read and loved.  Check this out.  On the left is the book I read in '82; on the right is the cover as it appears today.

 

Which cover would you like, Jim? 

Comments

[Laura Orem]

You are a still water that runs deep, Ms. S.

[jim cummins]

Ahem, well, I, um--I really think we err when we turn our, er, faces away from the new. Yes, the past has its place in our lives; certainly, we must honor the past; we must make sure the past is never, um, forgotten. And all that. But in cases like this I think we do a disservice to the past, if we find ourselves just, oh, you know, mouthing old platitudes, as opposed to, er, mouthing, um, new platitudes. I mean, certain books, let's face it, are really just about language, of course; so it's important, I think, you know, to keep that language new, vibrant, alive--you know, right on our, um, lips. As it were. So I guess I'd choose--for purely aesthetic reasons, of course--the, ah, newer maid--I mean cover--the newer cover. The current cover. Yes, after thinking about it, a lot, I'd have to go with the current cover.

[Bill C]

Not to mention the foreign editions....check out the Swedish edition here:

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/41/m_4b96f908657ce5a0da35239f8807186b.jpg

Can you see this on the shelves in Wal-Mart?

[Stacey]

Thanks for the tip about the Swedish edition. Love the hand-print! The link here isn't working but I did a google image search and found it easily.
What I find so interesting is that the racier covers would seem to limit the audience, at least in US. I don't know if I would have had the nerve to buy the book in 1982 if it had had the current cover. I would have had to slip it between Family Circle magazine and read it in the book store aisle.
Stacey

[jim cummins]

Thanks to Bill from me, too. I benefitted from Stacey's google search and saw the Swedish cover (with handprint!). Stacey, did you see also the Swedish mag, Family Circle Jerk? They're so much more advanced than we are!

[Garrett Cole Porter]

"Spanking the Maid": a how to? a self-help book? or quality experimental erotica?

[Major Reno Bertoia]

Garrett Cole Porter won the Cy Henny Youngman Award last year. For pitching woo.