Between 1958 and 1976, the Irish-American writer Mary Lavin published sixteen stories in The New Yorker. It was a prolific time for the writer, helped in no small part by her close working relationship with her chief editor, Rachel MacKenzie. During those years, they wrote nearly 400 letters to each other, the topics of which ranged from story edits to their holiday plans, windfalls and legal troubles, promotions and health emergencies. Within a year of working together, they were ending their letters with ‘love’, ‘gratefully’ and ‘affectionately’.

Gráinne Hurley’s impressive debut draws extensively from these letters as well as other New Yorker-related material, to explore the collaborative relationship between this famous writer and her editor. Lavin’s own writing process, the inner workings and editing procedures of The New Yorker and the process of publishing a story from manuscript to print during its heyday are all distilled from the letters.

It brings fascinating insight into the lives and careers of two, mid-20th-century working women, operating on either side of the Atlantic, and inhabiting the small but hallowed world of literary publishing. It reveals just how practical and pro-active they needed to be to be seen and successful in a male-dominated industry.

GRÁINNE HURLEY holds a PhD in Contemporary Irish Literature from University College Dublin and is a former English Literature lecturer and drama teacher. Her work has been cited in various publications including Seamus Deane’s Small World (2021), The Oxford Book of Irish Fiction (2020) and Elke D’hoker’s Irish Women Writers and the Modern Short Story (2016). In 2023, Gráinne was appointed writer-in-residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.