Newspaper Page Text
rflaiiwwnil c/htilreuu (Qjvmejmbejwjd.
4 Sept. 90
Dear Judy,
How in the world did you swing it! ? To get a
FLAGPOLE? ! Who do you know? Do you want it
hack? I’ll treasure it for you. The only person I knew
of who had a direct line to the FLAGPOLE was a
bearded guy who was rumored to hang out at the
GLOBE. But you know rumors.
Luv,
Ray
yes, the townspeople of Athens know rumors, and they
abounded when author Raymond Andrews killed himself Nov.
25, 1991. But few know people the way he did, being able to
embrace and therefore bring out the best in everyone he met.
Steel magnate or garbage collector, one’s status made no dif
ference to Raymond Andrews Honestly. Well, the only dif
ference being the magnate was expected to ante up for one of
Raymond’s beers. The important thing about both magnate
and garbage collector was that each had a story to tell, and
Raymond was the man to listen.
Raymond Andrews moved back to his native Georgia from
New York in the mid-1980s, a writer who was the victim of
the now prevalent publishing company corporate takeovers
jeopardizing the careers of authors of literary fiction. On the
1983 Pub. Date of his third novel, Baby Sweet's, by Dial Press,
Doubleday consumed Dial and dropped Baby Sweet's and his
first two novels from its list. An author's worst nightmare,
having a book published and declared out of print in a single
day.
So, Raymond, down on his luck, took up residence in a
house his brother, artist Benny Andrews, built out on Morton
Road.
“Just me and these damn squirrels out here,” Raymond
would say. But he insisted the solitude suited him; he could
write uninterrupted for days and then take a foray into town.
“1 was so excited about coming into town, I didn’t sleep
at all last night," he would joke as he climbed into the car of
the benevolent soul who was giving a ride into town that
day.
Here begins a publication story never taught in any semi
nar on “How to get published,” or “How to be your own liter
ary agent.” On one of his days in town, Raymond met
Malcolm Call of the UGA Press in Harry Bissett’s, at the
table Raymond referred to as the “little Algonquin table."
Call requested copies of Raymond’s out-of-print novels, the
Muskhogean County trilogy, which Raymond produced the
next time he journeyed into Athens. The novels in the tril
ogy, Apalachee Red, Rosiebelle Lee Wildcat Tennessee and Baby
Sweet's depict life in the rural Deep South from before the
First World War to the 1960s.
“Amen,” Raymond shouted on the comer of Jackson and
Broad streets when he learned Call had acquired the books
for UGA Press. The Press brought these books back to life as
part their Brown Thrasher paperback reprint series and cham
pions them to this day.
After returning to Georgia, Raymond published two books
with Peachtree Publishers in Atlanta, The Last Radio Baby
and Jesse and Jesus and Cousin Claire.’ Pick up any of his
books, turn to any page, and see immediately the trade
mark humor with which Raymond approached the hu
man condition.
One of Raymond s favcrite stories was about deciding
i to send his first novel to Random House.
“William Faulkner had just died, so 1 figured they had
an opening. So, of course, 1 sent it right away. It seemed to
me that Random House had an editor in the post office. That
manuscript came back so fast, it was like a boomerang."
Another involved lecturing to classes about his books,
which Raymond called “going down to listen to what I’m
| writing about.” He said, "Critics are like Bible students. You
can find in the text anything you want to. But, as long as
they pay for the trip, fine."
Raymond Andrews, Salute.
Anyone interested in contributing to a scholarship in cre
ative writing to be established as a memorial to Raymond
Andrews, please write to Judy Long c/o Flagpole, P.O. Box
1027, Athens, GA 3060.) or email flagpole@negia.net.
Judy Long
le FLAGP 0le
,nstf nas Album
Side i
/ IZFrt******
rtccj
? i*" ?£***,'
°"P ; Hohck T VC, ‘
, 5 J^Soul,
lf *nu, . 12-24
0
vecew&ea-, 1996
1 ( *Tla3?ol& office. .
For VISA, MasterCard, or American Express orders, call 706-549-0301.