The Writing of One Novel - Irving Wallace

 In 1946 Irving Wallace, best selling author of several books, met a judge on the Nobel prize jury. Wallace was shocked at his biases, his alleged Hitler friendly attitude and lack of knowledge about some basic things (who is James Joyce he asked). I particularly liked the phrase Wallace uses - a cobweb of prejudices and misinformation he calls him.

That Wallace (an generally all of us) regard the Nobel Prize as super human and the jury naturally to be of gods was rudely shattered as he met him again and discovered more shocking details like how Andre Gide's homosexuality, Einstein being a Jew, the love affairs of D'Annunzio, the drinking problem of Faulkner - probably cost them dearly. The fact that they were being judged for things other than their contribution to their subject appalled Wallace.

In an effort spanning sixteen years, Irving Wallace shares his journey of how the idea was conceived, the research involved, the development of characters. He interviewed Nobel judges, laureates like Einstein and Pearl S Buck and fleshed out a story of common people who come into the extraordinary fortune of getting a Nobel Prize. His effort was to make them as human - which includes drinking, sex and other such weaknesses.

'The Prize' finally did well and while most people seem to think there was an overdose of sex which is what Wallace's novels normally are full off (he did not mention about his research into the sex part though).

I liked the extreme commitment and record he keeps of his writing process - number of hours each day, total number of man hours spent on it. Perfect execution, not letting himself off the hook but writing and writing and staying with his project which is what I realise I must do going forward. Write and write and write. 

Thanks Vinod bhai for the book. It's disintegrating by the minute though.