The case of the Wolf and his temporary secretary

By Dan Bloom

Danny Bloom
Danny Bloom

CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Wolf Mankowitz was a British novelist, playwright, screenwriter and film producer, and while he was born in the East End of London into a lower middle class family of Jewish immigrants from Russia, he rose to fame later in life as a producer of some James Bond movies and the author of a series of novels and stage plays. He married his college sweetheart and the couple had four children, one of whom, Gered, went on to become a famous rock star photographer in London who took what is now an iconic photo of African-American guitar genius Jimmy Hendrix.

I had never heard of Mankowitz until last week when on my peripatetic internet rounds, I chanced upon an American woman’s recollections of Wolf from her days as his Santa Fe secretary and ”amanuensis” while he was writing (dictating) his 1990 novel titled Exquisite Cadaver.

At the time, the late 1980s, Mankowitz was teaching literature and theater arts at Santa Fe University, and returning every summer to Ireland, where he lived for tax reasons. His novels were mostly published in Britain, and very few of them ever reached an American audience. He was well-known among London publishers, and his books, laced with Jewish themes and humor, did well there. For some odd reason which I have not been able to figure out yet, America ignored this Jewish genius from Old Blighty.

In my book, from what I know about him now, he belongs up there with such Jewish writers in America as Philip Roth, Woody Allen and Isaac Bashevis Singer. But fate handed him a empty card when it came to American publishers. They shunned him.

But back to that word I mentioned above: ”amanuensis.”

I came across this word, and met the woman, Kimberly Orsborn, who was Wolf’s assistant while he was writing his 1990 novel in Santa Fe. I belong to a global club of word spotters called ”A Word A Day.” The word for that day was, yes, ‘amanuensis,” and this was a new word to me for sure. It means someone who assists someone else doing a task, such as laboratory research or writing a novel or editing a newspaper.

Orsborn wrote in to the club’s central files and thanked the editor for bringing up that lovely word. That’s how we met, again by the wonders of this amazing internet machine.

“Thank you for this lovely word,” she began her note to the editor. “I was an ‘amanuensis’ once, although I called myself a freelance secretary. One client was the great British writer Wolf Mankowitz, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We worked in his large study; he would pace, look out the window, sit down, get up, pace some more, dictating his stories (with gestures and voices for each character).”

“I took it all down in shorthand, transcribed it on an Apple IIe, then we proofread it together on the screen. He didn’t make many changes but would sometimes exclaim, “I didn’t say that!” I didn’t argue because, as a writer myself, I’ve been known to unconsciously edit other people’s work (oops). The result of this enjoyable work was his last novel Exquisite Cadaver, ‘amanuensised’, polished by the author, and published in [London] in 1990. I cherish my autographed copy. It was a fascinating experience [to work with him.]’

Orsborn lives in America, and I am based in Taiwan. I immediately shot her an email and asked if we could talk online. I wanted to know more about her connection to Mankowitz and what it was like meeting and working with a great man like him.

”Wolf had an earthy sense of humor and liked to poke fun at the human condition and at people themselves,” she told me by email. “I remember telling him when we found out that my then-father-in-law was cheating on my then-mother-in-law; he laughed, which startled me, and said, ‘So what? It’s just sex!!'”

When I asked Orsborn if Mankowitz had told her any good Jewish stories and jokes during the time she knew him in New Mexico in the late 1980s, she said: “I honestly don’t remember any specifically Jewish humor, but his Jewishness just was him, through and through.”

“I was in my early 30s at that time and was deeply devoted to all things literary, so when I finally figured out his storied history and connections to famous people and movies in Britain (there was no Google back then), I was in awe and a little shy around him,” she said. “This seemed to amuse Wolf, and he would sometimes gently ‘bait’ me to see my reaction, which evoked a sly grin from him.”

When I asked what it was like to work with him on the novel, which he basically dictated to her while standing up and acting out the scenes of the story, she said she had fond memories of Mankowitz, noting:

”Unlike other authors I worked for, Wolf was appreciative of my work in the creation of his work and always said thank you.”

“We were at the very end of his dictated novel-in-progress and he seemed, to me anyway, to be a little ‘stuck’ at how he wanted the ending to wrap up,” she recalled. “I remember feeling worried about that. He looked at me and said something like, ‘Don’t look so anxious. This part is like the last stages of labor.’ He was perfectly calm, having been at this stage dozens of times, I am sure. I thought that what he said and the way he said it was so astonishing that I wrote it down quickly on a piece of notepaper and kept it and still have it somewhere in my files.”

After the book was published, her job as Wolf Mankowitz’s amanuensis was over and she took on work  in Santa Fe. But they kept in touch, she said.

“He wrote me several letters when he went back to Ireland to live, and many years later I contacted his son Gered, who said he would like to have them,” Orsborn said.

I had one more question, and I wanted to know how she and Mankowitz first met in Santa Fe and how she got the gig working for him on his novel.

“I was in my early 30s at the time [and Mankowitz was 65 or so],” she said.

“I ran an ad in a Santa Fe newspaper and Wolf saw the ad and called me. But I don’t believe in luck. It was serendipity and synchronicity. Maybe even grace.”

Orsborn left me with another good thought about the literary work of this neglected and mostly forgotten Jewish humorist:  “I hope you can read some of his novels. They are a bit of a tough go because of their age, in that the stories are a bit dated, but read in the context of their time and place.”

Wolf Mankowitz passed away in  Ireland in 1998. He was 73.

Having met the great man, as Orsborn fondly recalls him, through Orsborn’s emails about him, I now want to know more about his literary works and I hope there will be a Wolf Mankowitz revival one day in America, too. He was, as far as I can tell, a very important Jewish humorist of the 20th century. Why has he been forgotten?

Wolf Mankowitz (1924 – 1998): z’l.

*
Bloom is a freelance writer based in Taiwan and an inveterate web surfer.  Your comments on this article may be placed in the box below or sent directly to the author at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com

4 thoughts on “The case of the Wolf and his temporary secretary”

  1. Hi, Dan, I had major problems with my computer, but these appear to have been finally solved.

    In any a case “amanuensis” is not a strange word. An intellectual like you ought to be familiar with it.

    Peter

  2. Peter re Dan Bloom on influential Anglo-Jewish Wolf Mankowitz re memories of his ‘amanuensis’ — Peter, please note: I am not an intellectual. I am a country boy from western Mass. who never heard of million dollars words like ”amanuensis.” All I can do is count to ten most days. [I just ply the waters of the Internet, Peter. I know nothing. But even at age 65, i learn something NEW every day.] Thanks for reading the piece and glad you enjoyed it. Wolf was quite a character! Had you ever heard of him before and read his books? You should. Peter re Dan Bloom on influential Anglo-Jewish Wolf Mankowitz re memories of his ‘amanuensis’ — I am not an intellectual. I am a country boy from western Mass. who never heard of million dollars words like ”amanuensis.” I just ply the waters of the Internet, Peter. I know nothing. But even at age 65, i learn something NEW every day. Thanks for reading the piece and glad you enjoyed it. Wolf was quite a character! Had you ever heard of him before and read his books? You should.

  3. Pingback: A Woman of Words in A Time of Reprieve | Catching My Drift

Comments are closed.