Rapturous Prose

A postcard from William Gaddis to John B. Aldridge, dated 24 July 1985:

Dear Jack,
Glad and relieved to hear from you, it seems a very long time & we'd hoped you might pass through; glad also that the book did reach you & kept your generous regard for my work unblemished. (I'd wanted this Rapture for the book's jacket, but the folks in Sherman Texas feared the book might have swear words in it & so declined.) Again, let us know if you do pass through.
our best to you both
Bill Gaddis

The book is Gaddis' novel Carpenter's Gothic. The painting on the front of the postcard is "The Coming Rapture" by Texas painter Charles Anderson, which, according to Read, Seen, Heard, has appeared on over 5 Million prints and postcards since 1975.

The Letters of William Gaddis has just been published. It's not quite as good as discovering a lost Gaddis novel, but it's damn close.

(It's a pity Gaddis never took on automobile culture as one of his institutions for parody, along with public art, business, education, law.... He did however invent the "Sosumi" car brand for A Frolic of His Own. It figures in one of the book's legal cases.)