The beginning of the end

Got to the Festival this morning in time to hear the "Wild at Heart" panel, with Paula Morris moderating a discussion of women's memoirs with Judy Conner, Louise Shaffer, Emily Toth, and Haven Kimmel. It was pretty lively at times--not exactly antagonistic, bu I had the feeling that a couple of the panelists wouldn't be establishing longtime Sisterhood of the Traveling Typewriters style friendships. But the cool thing was that they were all smart and funny and had a lot to say about their books and their fields, and it made me want to read the two writers I hadn't yet read (Shaffer and Morris).

When it was over, I met Emily Toth in the hall and complimented her on Inside Peyton Place, her biography of the writer Grace Metalious, which originally came out in 1981 and has recently become heaty again with the new interest in Peyton Place and the fact that Sandra Bullock has optioned her book. Toth, a professor at LSU, was charming and I felt like a dope for not bringing my copy of her book to the Festival to sign. It really was a lively piece of scholarship, and the fact it came out in '81 was remarkable: back then, Metalious was probably being sneered at in both English and women's studies departments. Anyway, Ms. Toth was a great conversationalist, and I was happy to learn she kept a place in New Orleans in addition to her home base of Baton Rouge.

(An aside: when a writer is standing in the hall after one of these things, go up and say hello. If you're not an insane fan, someone peddling an unpublished manuscript, or a Person With an Agenda, they're likely to be happy to have the chance to talk to someone who wants to talk to them. And if they're not nice, you have a story to share for years.)