THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY

THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY

On June 23, 1946, publication of "Horizon." The New Yorker. Hellbox.

"He was sitting it out as a night rewrite man on a not particularly outstanding newspaper. That undoubtedly was the big reason he had begun to think about quitting."

McGuire had just turned 43. Contemporaries were dying. Jess, his co-worker, had ended their affair (". . . from here on get another girl. . .") And he would look from his office at the state capitol building and realize he had never seen the other side of it. He had that early middle-age feeling that life was passing him by.

"And then - this time suddenly and terrifyingly - he knew he was not going to quit, not tonight, not ever. He knew when he was well off. He knew when he had a good thing. He would stay with the paper and the paper would take care of him."

A great description of "mid-life crisis." John O'Hara was forty years old when he wrote this.

From a June 23, 1959 letter to his friend, the producer David Brown:

I completed my novel at 0455 yesterday morning and I am, to my surprise delighted with it . . . OURSELVES TO KNOW is a good novel; I think it will be more successful than I felt it would be . . .

From a June 23, 1965 letter to his English agent Graham Watson:

. . . (The) New American Library has signed the contract for the U.S. paperback rights to THE LOCKWOOD CONCERN. They are shelling out $500,000, which is pretty good shelling . . . I am very hard to please sometimes, which is why I finally settled for a Rolls Royce.