An excellent correspondence with his first literary agent, Dorothea Oppenheimer, covering the period during the writing of his first two books (mostly as a Stanford Writing Fellow): 'The Sporting Club' and 'The Bushwacked Piano'

From the Bart Auerbach Collection. In fine condition. Comprising: 29 typed letters signed, 5 typed postcards signed, and 2 autograph postcards signed, all from McGuane to Oppenheimer, and one typed letter signed (carbon copy, with holograph note) from McGuane to William B. Decker (senior editor at Dial Press); written from Palo Alto (and elsewhere in California) and Grosse Ile, Michigan, 10 June 1966 to 4 December 1967. A total of 30 letters and 7 cards, 41 pages (the letters all 4to, and all but one single-spaced). WITH: Carbon copies of 33 letters from Dorothea Oppenheimer to McGuane (her side of the correspondence); carbon copies of 7 letters from Oppenmheimer to various editors and publishers; and 6 typed letters signed, 4 carbon copies, and 2 photocopies of letters from editors and publishers to Oppenheimer (mostly) or McGuane.

McGuane's letters and cards are primarily on the writing, the revising, and the efforts to get 'The Bushwacked Piano' published. (Although the first written, it was his second novel published, in 1971.) Three of the letters deal at length with 'The Sporting Club' (published 1969) and four others refer to it. Other writers McGuane mentions or discusses are: Wallace Stegner (director of the Stanford Writing program), William Hjortsberg, E. L. Doctorow, Jim Harrison, John Hawkes, Denise Levertov, Thomas Pynchon, and Larry McMurtry. In one of the letters he comments on the Stanford Writing program itself. (BA).