February 18, 1982
HEAVEN’S TO BETSY, MR. GUTTKE!
You make me feel like some sort of female Englebert Humperdink.
To think that I have become a cult figure in Minneapolis! Quite
seriously (for once) I am delighted to hear that you and your
friends are getting so much fun out of my books, and should
dearly love to come and collect that promised cup of tea, which
as you may have discerned I do adore... almost as much as I
adore getting letters like yours.
As to my further works, the thing that will interest you most
is that I did have another Peter Shandy story out this past
month. Perhaps my fan club could club together, as it were,
and invest in a hardback copy as it won’t be out in paperback
for some time... it takes roughly a year, as a rule. A jacket
is enclosed... I did not write that icky blurb and am waxed
much wroth about it. But I do love the portrait of Thorkjeld
Svenson on the cover.
You apparently do not also know, although the New York Times et al. blew my cover some time ago, that I have written three mysteries with Canadian backgrounds under the alias (work it out) of Alisa Craig. The first, A PINT OF MURDER, is in Bantam paperback. The second, THE GRUB-AND-STAKERS MOVE A MOUNTAIN, might still be obtainable through Detective Book Club... I think the Doubleday hardcover is sold out. The third (jacket also enclosed because they send me bunches and I never know what else to do with them) is now in hardcover and will be in paperback toward the end of the year.
I have also written mysteries for what are referred to as young adults, but I rather doubt if they’d appeal much to your group. Anyway, the two latest are KING DEVIL and WE DARE NOT GO A-HUNTING, published by Atheneum. I started these some time ago, and just got into the adult ones with REST YOU MERRY. As to articles and whatnot, they’re all out of print now and I’m afraid there’s not much you can do except visit the Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University where I have a modest place in the Special Collections section. I did receive a begging letter from my old editor at Doubleday (who is not old at all, but rather young and charming, as I picture you and your discerning friends) who is now editor-in-chief of the Alfred Hitchcock Magazine, asking me to do some short stories for her, so there may be something in that one of these days.
For a first letter, that was indeed a noble effort, and I do thank you so much. Could you please send me the real name and address of ‘Uncle Edgar’ so I can thank him, too? Best wishes to you as communicator, and to all your silent partners.
