Solitary Confinement

Abstract Purdy in the early 1970s often felt lonely and trapped. He wrote a novel called The House of the Solitary Maggot, the second novel in the Sleepers in Moon-Crowned Valleys series. His editor, Sandy Richardson, was inattentive, however. Purdy missed the editorial relationship he had with Robert Giroux, who had edited his first four novels. Sam Steward offered a long endorsement and the Los Angeles Times gave a glowing review, but the New York Times did not even review Solitary Maggot, which was not issued in paperback in the United States until 2005. Purdy was livid and blamed editor John Leonard and writer Edmund White, who declined to review it, as did novelist Guy Davenport, who had praised Jeremy’s Version in the New York Times. Purdy and some aficionados consider it perhaps his greatest work, while others see it as a lesser novel. Purdy felt overlooked and unappreciated.