“You Got to Read This Book”
October 7, 2013鈥擬aureen Corrigan is a bibliophile, but that鈥檚 something of an understatement for someone who receives 150鈥�200 books a week.
Corrigan is a lecturer and critic-in-residence in the . She鈥檚 also a book critic for NPR鈥檚 and the , which explains the weekly deliveries of books. While Corrigan spends much of her time reading new works, her latest book, due out next year, explores F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 classic The Great Gatsby.
Corrigan has read the novel at least 50 times, but each time she discovers something new. 鈥淚t just gets more curious. It has so many aspects to it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 ordinary American language made unearthly. It鈥檚 so beautiful.鈥�
Fitzgerald鈥檚 language is one reason for the book鈥檚 lasting popularity. 鈥淕reat works of art are miracles, and I wanted to explore that miracle,鈥� Corrigan said. 鈥淧art of my book is [about] how the novel lives on鈥攈ow we use it in classrooms, how it becomes movies, and how it becomes Brooks Brothers clothing,鈥� she said. Publishers probably didn鈥檛 expect the story to endure for generations. 鈥淲hen Fitzgerald died in 1940, there were still remainder copies in the Scribner warehouse. It didn鈥檛 sell out its first printing,鈥� she continued.
In her book, Corrigan recounts her Gatsby-related adventures, from riding 鈥渁 floating tourist trap鈥� on Long Island Sound to interviewing Scott Shepherd, an actor in the play Gatz who has memorized the entire novel. 鈥淚 wanted to tell stories and bring people back into [Fitzgerald鈥檚] world and the world of the novel,鈥� she explained.
Corrigan鈥檚 exploration took her all over the East Coast. She visited her high school in Astoria, Queens鈥擣itzgerald鈥檚 鈥淰alley of the Ashes鈥濃�攖o sit in on English classes reading the book for the first time. In the Scribner archives at Princeton University, she was able to see Francis Cugot鈥檚 painting, Celestial Eyes, which he created specifically for the cover of The Great Gatsby. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the only book jacket he ever did, and he was paid $100 for it,鈥� she said. But what may be the most famous book cover in American literature almost never happened. 鈥淪omeone at Scribner threw it into a waste basket and then someone else got it [back] out,鈥� she said.
Corrigan has accumulated a wealth of Gatsby stories for her book. In one story, she explains the mystery of how the novel became popular. 鈥淚n 1940, the book is nowhere, basically out of print,鈥� Corrigan said. But during World War II, publishers, editors, and authors decided that soldiers needed paperback books to distract them from the war. They created the Armed Services Editions, which were some of the first paperback books. 鈥淭hey decide to publish over 1,000 titles, everything from Moby Dick to detective stories, the Odyssey to cowboy tales,鈥� she explained. 鈥淥ne of the titles chosen is Gatsby, and all of a sudden, [there are] 100,000 copies of Gatsby distributed during WWII.鈥�
When Corrigan isn鈥檛 working on her book about The Great Gatsby, she is teaching at Georgetown and recommending books on Fresh Air. 鈥淭he two [jobs] do bleed into each other,鈥� she said. Newly released books often find their way into her courses. 鈥淚鈥檓 teaching Women鈥檚 Autobiography this semester, and we鈥檙e reading Patricia Volk鈥檚 Shocked, which came out [recently].鈥�
Her students also have access to the authors and journalists Corrigan has met in her career as a book critic. Margaret Talbot, a staff writer for The New Yorker, will be visiting Corrigan鈥檚 Literature of the City course this semester to talk about the New York voice in literature. 鈥淚 [also] teach a course on public intellectuals because I now know these people,鈥� she said. Corrigan鈥檚 students have learned about intellectuals in the digital era from writers and bloggers such as Ezra Klein, David Frum, and Todd Gitlin.
Corrigan describes her work at Georgetown and NPR as a dream for a bibliophile such as herself. 鈥淢y passion is to talk about good books. I love being able to talk about a book that people haven鈥檛 heard of and say, 鈥榊ou got to read this book.鈥欌��
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