Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

from Macmillan; Jack McClelland wrote her during the summer of 1980 claiming he had heard that either Munro or her agent was planning to move her to a new publisher. Even when Gibson, having discussed matters with Munro herself, wrote Virginia Barber about the next book and initiated contract discussions, Barber first asked Munro directly whether she wanted to remain with Macmillan; Barber was thinking specifically of McClelland & Stewart (and its paperback line, Seal), but also knew that other major Canadian publishers would be delighted too. “Tell me which house you want. I’ll let the lucky devils know, and then create a glorious contract,” she wrote.
    Munro must have immediately told her that she wanted to stay with Gibson and Macmillan, since Barber wrote him with an initialtable of contents within a week. She proposed the three stories held out of
Who
plus “Accident,” another one from that time, and a selection of four more recent stories: “Labor Day Dinner,” “Prue,” “The Turkey Season,” and “Bardon Bus.” Gibson annotated this letter with page lengths for the stories and, having conversed with Munro himself, he also listed other stories that might be added: “Visitors,” “Mrs. Cross and Mrs. Kidd,” “The Ferguson Girls Must Never Marry,” and “Dulse.” 8 He did not include “Wood,” which had appeared in the
New Yorker
in November 1980, feeling that it did not belong with the other stories. Clearly there was no shortage of material.
    The making of
The Moons of Jupiter
represented another significant step for Munro. Once
Who/The Beggar Maid
was done, her new editorial and managerial relations were firmly in place: Barber handled all business matters, McGrath oversaw the
New Yorker’s
first serial consideration, Gibson at Macmillan looked to her Canadian audience, and Close at Knopf saw to American book publication. Once Munro had confidence in someone, that was it. While Barber might have been able to negotiate better book contracts elsewhere, whether in Canada or New York, her author was loyal and supportive. Besides, she had taken her own time finding Gibson, the diligent editor who never pushed her toward a novel, in the first place. Likewise, Munro and Close hit it off from the first and have maintained their excellent working relation since.
    Then there was the
New Yorker
. Until 1994 Munro was edited there by either McGrath or Daniel Menaker. Both were highly enthusiastic and encouraging, and had been since 1976. So too when Menaker left the magazine, Alice Quinn, who had known Munro’s work in the magazine from its first publication there, brought a similar spirit to her editing. During the 1980s the magazine went through considerable internal vicissitudes as its owner and chief editors changed, but its commitment to Munro and to her writing has never wavered. What is more, from the stories included in
The Moons of Jupiter
on, the magazine’s editorial methods and tastes have had some role in shaping Munro’s stories; responding to her
New Yorker
editors’ critiques and the magazine’s famed editorial idiosyncrasies, Munro moved them farther in the direction she saw them taking.
    Most of the stories that went into
Moons
were considered by the
New Yorker
after Munro was under a first-reading contract. As early as April 1978 in turning down “Joanne,” a never-published story that exists now only in manuscript, McGrath wrote to Barber, “I hate turning down Alice Munro stories, because even when they’re not completely successful, the writing is always first-rate – just as it is here.” He took solace on this occasion from the fact that he had three more stories on his desk, but those were turned down as well. The first bonanza did not begin until early 1980, just at the point when Barber sensed “a new style” in the stories she was seeing. By the time Barber and Gibson were beginning to shape
Moons
in early 1982, the
New Yorker
had seen all twelve stories and published five of them (plus “Wood”); five of the other seven had been published elsewhere
(Atlantic Monthly, Chatelaine, Saturday Night, Tamarack Review
, and
Toronto Life)
. Two – “Bardon Bus” and “Hard Luck Stories” – first appeared in
The Moons of Jupiter
collection.
    In a draft version of “Working for a Living” as a memoir, Munro wrote passages about herself that seem to demonstrate the new qualities Barber felt – that is, a deeper and richer meditation on her home place.