(urth) Has anyone heard of C. S. Cooney?

JWillard aldenweer at charter.net
Thu Aug 11 17:20:47 PDT 2005


Maru Dubshinki wrote:

>On 8/10/05, JWillard <aldenweer at charter.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>Maru Dubshinki wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>On 8/10/05, Jason Willard <funesmem6 at msn.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>I just got my copy of Starwater Strains and the dedication says the title is
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>from a poem by C. S. Cooney called "Lady Rosemary."  Rosemary I get, of
>>>      
>>>
>>>>course, but is Mr. Wolfe in the habit of making up poets?  I can't find this
>>>>poet mentioned in Google or Wikipedia or ABE Books.  (As fabulous as they
>>>>are, admittedly limited sources.)  Am I missing something obvious?  Has
>>>>Wolfe used this as a pseudonym?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>There is a man of letters by the name of "Seamus Cooney".  Cooney is
>>>not a common last name at all, and that fellow has at least one of the
>>>right initials.  But he doesn't appear to have authored any poems,
>>>rather just edited a lot of poems and letters by such luminaries as
>>>Charles Bukowski; there is an Irish principal who likes poetry, but
>>>that seems unlikely; and it doesn't appear to be a code of some sort-
>>>at least, the most significant anagram is "Once Cosy". Perhaps you
>>>could copy the poem, if Wolfe included it (or did he simply mention it
>>>in passing?).
>>>
>>>
>>>~Maru
>>>Current mood: ?
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>>>Urth Mailing List
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>It reads:
>>
>>"The title of this book is taken from "Lady Rosemary," a poem by C. S.
>>Cooney;  and this book is dedicated to them."
>>
>>That's it.  Three possibilities (as far as I can see):  Cooney is an
>>obscure poet (and Wolfe does seem to have some obscure things in his
>>library); something's misprinted; or someone's doing some leg-pulling.
>>Thanks for the feedback!
>>    
>>
>
>Well, I gave the Library of Congress  a shot; no joy.
>But something rings wrong about that text.  "this book is dedicated to
>*them*"?  Is that pronoun correct?  There are three possible referents
>for that pronoun: "Starwater Strains" (unacceptable, since that is a
>very strange thing to anthromorphize, and I'm not even sure what
>starwater strains could be, anyways), Rosemary (well, Wolfe *could* be
>a herbal fanatic. It's possible, but improbable), and finally, C. S.
>Cooney, in which case the name could well be a pseudonym for a
>collective/duo/misc. group of writers, somewhat like Bourbaki is for
>mathematicians.
>
>~Maru
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>  
>
[Asked David Hartwell - this was his response:]

I asked and got this response from my agent Susan Protter, via Gene 
Wolfe's friend Patrick O'Leary.

DGH

Dear Dave:

Claire Cooney is a neighbor, fan, family friend and renaissance devotee, 
singer and poet.

Patrick says she is a sweet young girl....

SUSAN



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