To reprise a motif of my last post, ‘the first pancake was a lump’, in the admirable Russian phrase (pervyi blin upal komom). That’s to say in English that my carefully prepared approach to a group of publishers went off at half-cock. There’s still some follow-up there, so it’s not hopeless. But, changing metaphors, I feel that my advance party is trapped behind the lines and it’s time to send the second wave of letters over the top.
I find myself reflecting on John Dewey’s observation in his Comment of 18 January that ‘unfortunately luck does play a large part’.
My gut instinct is that he is absolutely right. Funnily enough, I rather respect Napoleon’s habitual question when asked to promote someone to general: ‘A-t-il de la chance?’ Yet in the final analysis I have never ever been able to believe in luck. If I did, I suppose I would wear a St Christopher, carry charms on my key ring, buy a black cat. Rifling through my encyclopaedic wallet, I discover three icons in it, and it might be assumed that these are lucky charms; but two of them (in card) were given to me by a Russian friend thirty years ago and have simply stayed there, they are not of holy folk I particularly like, and the other is just a piece of paper 60 x 85 mm that I cut out of a V&A leaflet twenty years ago:
‘Not a charm’
This icon — of St George, obviously — I do like, partly because I’m so fond of Iurii Zhivago’s poem about the myth. But it’s still not a ‘lucky charm’. It’s for looking at, admiring, and thinking about, if and when I come across it!
Below the ‘icons’, I am astounded to find these bits of card:
‘Be Prepared’
Why on earth do I have four? To be honest, I had completely forgotten that I had any of these wiring diagrams at all. Probably the first one was deposited in the Filo-wallet thirty years ago because I was genuinely uncertain about wiring new plugs, maybe I collected the others to give to my children if they ever had to wire a plug, but most likely I just kept stuffing them in my wallet because I was so anxious about wrongly wiring…
These diagrams, I think, are far more characteristic of my attitude to chance/luck than the icons. If I think back, nearly every book I’ve published could be said to have had an element of luck or coincidence about its publication. Very often the element seems to have been a chance acquaintance or a friend of a friend. It really does look as though John Dewey is right. On the other hand, although the encounters may have been ‘chance’, or ‘stuff just happened’, if I hadn’t seized and built on that ‘luck’ nothing whatsoever would have come of it. You have to look for these ‘chances’, therefore, and make them into opportunities, as John did with Brimstone Press. Where finding a publisher is concerned, you have to keep your eyes constantly open, do your homework, keep abreast of publications, and facilitate your good luck, as it were…
Until the end of June, I will continue to check my contacts and wiring, and doubtless I shall occasionally have to replace one of my fuses. Come to think of it, carrying an icon of St George in my wallet may not be so inappropriate, either.
Related
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
George Calderon, 1912
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Captain of the 11
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
George Calderon c.1901
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Checking my wiring
To reprise a motif of my last post, ‘the first pancake was a lump’, in the admirable Russian phrase (pervyi blin upal komom). That’s to say in English that my carefully prepared approach to a group of publishers went off at half-cock. There’s still some follow-up there, so it’s not hopeless. But, changing metaphors, I feel that my advance party is trapped behind the lines and it’s time to send the second wave of letters over the top.
I find myself reflecting on John Dewey’s observation in his Comment of 18 January that ‘unfortunately luck does play a large part’.
My gut instinct is that he is absolutely right. Funnily enough, I rather respect Napoleon’s habitual question when asked to promote someone to general: ‘A-t-il de la chance?’ Yet in the final analysis I have never ever been able to believe in luck. If I did, I suppose I would wear a St Christopher, carry charms on my key ring, buy a black cat. Rifling through my encyclopaedic wallet, I discover three icons in it, and it might be assumed that these are lucky charms; but two of them (in card) were given to me by a Russian friend thirty years ago and have simply stayed there, they are not of holy folk I particularly like, and the other is just a piece of paper 60 x 85 mm that I cut out of a V&A leaflet twenty years ago:
‘Not a charm’
This icon — of St George, obviously — I do like, partly because I’m so fond of Iurii Zhivago’s poem about the myth. But it’s still not a ‘lucky charm’. It’s for looking at, admiring, and thinking about, if and when I come across it!
Below the ‘icons’, I am astounded to find these bits of card:
‘Be Prepared’
Why on earth do I have four? To be honest, I had completely forgotten that I had any of these wiring diagrams at all. Probably the first one was deposited in the Filo-wallet thirty years ago because I was genuinely uncertain about wiring new plugs, maybe I collected the others to give to my children if they ever had to wire a plug, but most likely I just kept stuffing them in my wallet because I was so anxious about wrongly wiring…
These diagrams, I think, are far more characteristic of my attitude to chance/luck than the icons. If I think back, nearly every book I’ve published could be said to have had an element of luck or coincidence about its publication. Very often the element seems to have been a chance acquaintance or a friend of a friend. It really does look as though John Dewey is right. On the other hand, although the encounters may have been ‘chance’, or ‘stuff just happened’, if I hadn’t seized and built on that ‘luck’ nothing whatsoever would have come of it. You have to look for these ‘chances’, therefore, and make them into opportunities, as John did with Brimstone Press. Where finding a publisher is concerned, you have to keep your eyes constantly open, do your homework, keep abreast of publications, and facilitate your good luck, as it were…
Until the end of June, I will continue to check my contacts and wiring, and doubtless I shall occasionally have to replace one of my fuses. Come to think of it, carrying an icon of St George in my wallet may not be so inappropriate, either.
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