Uncollecting Cheever

The Family of John Cheever vs. Academy Chicago Publishers

Anita Miller

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 1998
• eBook ISBN: 9781461705758
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Law

Ten years ago, publishers, authors, scholars, and the reading public watched anxiously the results of two lawsuits involving the family of John Cheever, famed short story writer, and Academy Chicago Publishers, a small publishing house. At stake was not only a collection of Cheever's lesser-known short stories, valued for their literary merit and historical value, but also the definition of intellectual property. In a dramatic re-telling, Anita Miller draws us into the case, creating vivid portraits of the participants and the tensions between them while also shedding light on key issues of our time.

Table of contents

• Preface
• 1 Prelude: “This Is Really Easy”
• 2 “A Splendid Idea”
• 3 “I Suppose You Could Say They Haven’t Been Delivered”
• 4 “A Perfect Agent for the Eighties”
• 5 “John’s Poor Little Stories”
• 6 “Serious Inequities in the Contract”
• 7 “They’re My Only Children”
• 8 “Cheever Clout”
• 9 “Franklin Thinks Maybe the Cheevers Won’t Like It”
• 10 “The Cheevers’ Concern about Premature Publicity”
• 11 “It’s a Matter of Honor”
• 12 “The Work Is of Grossly Substandard Quality”
• 13 Hearing in White Plains: “They Are Not the Stories of John Cheever”
• 14 “It Competes Directly with the Published Literature of John Cheever”
• 15 “I Want You to Publish This Book”
• 16 The Royce Hotel: “You Won’t Sell as Many Books as Random House”
• 17 “As If This Were Dirty Laundry . . . . Gossip”
• 18 Mary Cheever’s Deposition: “I Would Like This Creep to Finish”
• 19 Franklin Dennis’s Deposition: “I’m Going to Ask the Witness Not to Speak with His Attorney”
• 20 Susan Cheever’s Deposition: “They Are Essentially Package Engineers Rather Than Publishers”
• 21 Ben Cheever’s Deposition: “I Don’t Know a Lot about What Is in This Xerox”
• 22 Andrew Wylie’s Deposition: “What Was the Man’s Name?”
• 23 Evidentiary Hearing, White Plains, Day 1, A.M.: “Is That the One They Made into a Movie?”
• 24 Evidentiary Hearing, White Plains, Day 1, P.M.: “Which President Were You Speaking Of?”
• 25 Evidentiary Hearing, Day 2, A.M.: “Who Is the Beggar?”
• 26 Evidentiary Hearing, Day 2, P.M.: “Do You Contend That She Knew What She Was Doing When She Did That?”
• 27 Interlude between Courtrooms: “The Second Thing They Do, Is They Come before You in a Judge Bash”
• 28 Goettel’s Opinion: “All Plaintiffs Will Prevail”
• 29 “It Looks Like It’s Going to Be Relatively Easy”
• 30 “You Don’t See a Moral Issue Here?”
• 31 Chicago Trial, Days 1 and 2: “They Could Be Bad, They Could Be Good, That Is Not the Issue”
• 32 Chicago Trial, Day 3: “Welcome to Our Fair City”
• 33 Judge Kiley’s Decision: “Most of the Dispute Has Been Decided”
• 34 “A Literary Gold Mine”
• 35 “John Was the King of Hades”
• 36 “Paul Is Named Jack and Mani Is Amy”
• 37 “It Becomes Like a Garbage Can of Stories”
• 38 “Enforcing a Contract for Mary Cheever”
• 39 “Mrs. Cheever Loves Those Stories”
• 40 “Small Press, Small Book”
• 41 “It’s Still a Very Good Idea, in the Abstract”
• 42 “It’s Like Getting a Cancer off Your Back”
• 43 A Hellabaloo
• 44 “Father Sells Best”
• 45 Another Moral Issue
• 46 “A Fascinating Example of One Writer’s Beginning”
• Sources and Notes
• Appendix A: The Publishing Agreement
• Appendix B: Chronology, Lawyers, and the Uncollected Stories List
• About the Author