Has anyone heard of C. S. Cooney?

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?

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: ? _______________________________________________

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: ? _______________________________________________

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: ? _______________________________________________ Urth Mailing List To post, write urth at urth.net Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net

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 _______________________________________________

On 8/11/05, JWillard <aldenweer at charter.net> wrote: [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

--- Maru Dubshinki <marudubshinki at gmail.com> wrote: On 8/11/05, JWillard <aldenweer at charter.net> wrote:

[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

/jaw drops. You're kidding, right?

On 8/12/05, don doggett <kingwukong at yahoo.com> wrote: --- Maru Dubshinki <marudubshinki at gmail.com> wrote:

On 8/11/05, JWillard <aldenweer at charter.net> wrote:

[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

/jaw drops. You're kidding, right?

That's awesome. I thought something like that might be the case. I'm glad it was, it speaks well of GW. Why don't you guys write her and ask her for copies of her poetry? She might be stoked. :) Don

Maru Dubshinki wrote: On 8/12/05, don doggett <kingwukong at yahoo.com> wrote:

--- Maru Dubshinki <marudubshinki at gmail.com> wrote:

On 8/11/05, JWillard <aldenweer at charter.net> wrote:

[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

/jaw drops. You're kidding, right?

That's awesome. I thought something like that might be the case. I'm glad it was, it speaks well of GW. Why don't you guys write her and ask her for copies of her poetry? She might be stoked. :) Don

Why not indeed- the poem might provide context for the anthology. What do you think, SUSAN? Does that sound too creepy/stalker-ish or no? ~Maru _______________________________________________