From our Canongate archives - 25 October 2001
A Booker-prize winner's work is never done. When invited to write a blurb for Yann Martel's Life of Pi, one of Canongate's hot titles for 2002, Margaret Atwood responded in rhyme why, much as she loved the book, she could not oblige:
Letter sent in reply to requests for blurbs
(I blurb only for the dead, these days)
'You are well-known, Ms. Atwood,' the Editor said,
'And we long for your quote on this book;
A few well-placed words wouldn't bother your head,
And would help us to get in the hook!'
'In my youth,' said Ms. Atwood, 'I blurbed with the best;
I practically worked with a stencil!
I strewed quotes about with the greatest largesse,
And the phrases flowed swift from my pencil.
Intelligent, lucid, accomplished, supreme,
Magnificent, touching but rough ,
And lucent and lyrical, plangent, a dream,
Vital, muscular, elegant, tough!
But now I am aging; my brain is all shrunk,
And my adjective store is depleted;
My hair's getting stringy, I walk as though drunk;
As a quotester I'm nigh-on defeated.
I would like to be useful; God knows, as a girl
I was well-taught to help and to share;
But the books and the pleas for quotes pour through the door
Till the heaps of them drive to despair!
So at last I've decided to say No to all.
What you need is a writer who's youthful;
Who has energy, wit, and a lot on the ball,
And would find your new book a sweet toothful,
Or else sees no need to be truthful.
Such a one would be happy, dear Editor, to
Write you quotes until blue in the brain.
It's a person like this who can satisfy you,
Not poor me, who am half down the drain.
So I wish you Good Luck, and your author, and book,
Which I hope to read later, with glee.
Long may you publish, and search out the blurbs,
Though you will not get any from me.'
Nominated for the inaugural 2005 Man Booker International Prize, whic recognises one writer for his or her outstanding achievement in fiction, Margaret Atwood is the author of more than thirty-five internationally acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical essays. The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Alias Grace, and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, which she won with her tenth novel, The Blind Assassin. Other prizes include the Governor General's Award for The Handmaid's Tale, the Italian Premio Literrario Internationale Mondello and the Canadian Giller Prize for Alias Grace, and the National Arts Club Literary Award in the United States. Margaret Atwood is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and has been awarded the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit and the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; she is a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto.
