T. Gertler Update
January 3rd, 2010At the end of November I wrote about T. Gertler’s book Elbowing the Seducer and wondered about T. Gertler’s identity, and what happened to her. I don’t know a lot more than I knew then, but I’ve finished her novel. The book is dedicated to R.D., M.D. and (the symbol for the Latin cum = with) Gravity. I haven’t read a sexy/plotty book like this since Rona Jaffe’s The Best of Everything and I really enjoyed myself.
New York Magazine reviewed the book and has a picture of T. Gertler, and in 1984 Janet Maslin wrote the following for the NYT:
Miss Hyams, who is Mr. Picker’s wife, directed more than 100 episodes of ”Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” She spent five years as casting director at Warner Bros., and was a vice president of Columbia Pictures. This will be her feature directing debut.
She and Miss Gertler, who have been discussing the adaptation, hope to retain the book’s humor and to keep the story closely focused on the narrator, lessening the importance of the men who mistreat her. ”The spirit of the book will be retained, and so will the main character,” Mr. Picker said. ”We think of her as an 80’s version of Holly Golightly.”
The screenplay is being written with a specific star in mind. However, the actress has not been told that the role is being tailored for her. ”You don’t go to somebody with a book, because she’ll just say, ‘I like it, I want to see the screenplay,’ ” Mr. Picker said. ”We’ll go to her with the screenplay when it’s done.”
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Concerning the Wikipedia claim that the character of Howard Ritchie is based on Gordon Lish: Howard Ritchie is described as a “midwife to literature” and he calls himself Captain Marvel (Lish is known as ”Captain Fiction”). I thought Ritchie’s literary magazine, Rosemary, resembled the Quarterly, but Lish founded the Quarterly in 1987 and Gertler’s book came out in 1984 so I guess if it’s Lish it could possibly be about Esquire? Does that make Vincent Bask Barry Hannah? Or Richard Ford?
Here are some passages from Elbowing the Seducer:
“Rosemary was descended from the Review, which had established a respectable reputation circulation among college libraries and large bookstores in college towns. The intricate woodblock R on its masthead had been carved by a student, Dickie N. Thornton, forty years before; thirty-five years later his widow; Lydia with plumed moles, provided a fund to perpetuate the magazine, with the provision that Dickie’s R should also endure…
The word submission summed up the problem he faced. He didn’t want writing to crawl to him, hat in hand…
He wanted to be disarmed, he wanted to be aroused. He was listening for a voice that unmistakably, stubbornly insisted on itself, couldn’t be anything but itself, faithfulness as instinct or, if instinct failed, faithfulness as an act of courage.”
January 5th, 2010 at 8:51 am
What an intriguing mystery! Looking around a little myself it seems that David Picker has been married to one Caryl Schlossman since 1953 and that “Mary Hartman” only had three directors, two of whom were men; the third was a woman named Joan Darling. Who edited and fact-checked Maslin’s story?! You should investigate more…there could be all kinds of shady stuff behind this.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Check this out:
LIEF, RUTH HUROK
Published: April 29, 2007
LIEF–Ruth Hurok, daughter of impresario Sol Hurok died at home at the age of 99. She leaves a daughter Nessa Hyams Picker, a son Peter Hyams, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She was a friend and hostess to most of the greatest dancers and musicians of the 20th Century. She led her incredibly long life with her very own style and her very own humor. She was as unique as she was loved.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E3DC163AF93AA15757C0A9619C8B63
November 7th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I came across a copy of this book on one of our bookshelves. Neither I nor my husband remember buying it. It may have been among the many that got packed up and sent to us when my mother-in-law died. The “soon to be a major motion picture” line sent me looking for the movie, but, like the author, it seems not to exist. If her name really is Trudy she might be Gertrude Gertler – which seems a cruel thing to name a child – or she could have played around with her real name a bit (e.g Gertrude Bestler becomes Trudy Gertler). I’ve come to expect the internet to lead me to all the answers, so this lack of information is quite frustrating.
March 21st, 2011 at 11:08 am
I used to be close friends with Trudy Gertler and her husband during the 1980’s in NYC. After 20 years of being out of touch, I am now back in touch with her now ex husband. She does indeed exist and I believe she alive and well. I would love to see her again. I do not know what happened with the plans for a movie based on ELBOWING THE SEDUCER. She has since written book reviews for the N Y Times. I have not seen Trudy since 1991. Our friendship ended when I had a baby and moved away from New York; Trudy and her husband struggled terribly with infertility when I knew them and according to Trudy, I handled this insensitively and she became angry with me. I have missed her over the years as she is a gifted, personable and brilliant woman. Soon after I moved away, I was told that she legally changed her name, both her first and last names. I believe she still lives in Manhattan. If she reads this, I send her my love. I too struggled with infertility after my first child.
April 21st, 2011 at 4:33 pm
I have also wondered what happened to T. Gertler. Her book was the talk of NY publishing, and got great reviews. The flyleaf said that she was working on another book. There is an online radio interview with her which was done about that time, and she was obviously very bright and personable. She said that the new book was to be called “Heavy Breathing.”
When her famous agent (I think her last name was Wasserman) died, her records were archived. In the list of the archives is a lot of correspondence about T. Gertler and this new novel. This went on for a few years, and then abruptly stopped. Apparently the book never came out.
Ms. Gertler was an obviously gifted writer who loved writing, from her interview. What caused her to abandon her novel? Why did she never write another? Why can no one find anything about her? It is a haunting mystery.