PETERSON, Brenda

River of Light

First edition. A little foxed, else fine in a just about fine dustwrapper. First book by a New Yorker staffer. Inscribed by the author to an editor at the New Yorker, Rachel MacKenzie: "3/78. To Rachel, my first editor and gentle friend. Thank you for being there at the end of this book. I worked towards your generous, critical eyes like light. With love and respect, Brenda." MacKenzie is the first person thanked in the acknowledgments of the book. Rachel MacKenzie replaced Katherine White as the fiction editor at the New Yorker, on the latter's retirement, on the recommendation of May Sarton. During her tenure at the magazine MacKenzie was noted for her nurturing and editing of, among others, Sarton, Philip Roth, Muriel Spark, and especially Isaac Bashevis Singer. MacKenzie's enthusiasm led to the magazine devoting an entire issue to Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. However, the magazine wouldn't publish Goodbye, Columbus as she recommended because William Shawn was too squeamish over the more "frank" aspects of the novella.

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