Caliban, the 1982 novella by Rachel Ingalls.
Mrs. Calibanwas reissued in November by New Directions, an independent publishing company.
Ingalls, 77, is something of a mythic recluse to her fans.
Credit: ILLUSTRATION by KEVIN HONG for EW
Calibans journey to reissue.
It began, quite simply, with Galchen looking for strong female writers.
Calibanlisted on a tiny little list of great post-WWII British books.
Harvard Common Press
Id never heard of the book, she recalls.
She ended up listingMrs.
Calibanin her motherhood-literature compendiumLittle Labors, published by ND in 2016, in the section headed Women Writers.
Enter NDs president, Barbara Epler, and editor, Tynan Kogane.
Epler hadnt caught Galchens mention ofMrs.
Calibanwhile editingLittle Labors, but Kogane did.
Suddenly everyone in the ND office was reading it and loving it.
And without getting up on a major soapbox, I do have to say thatMrs.
Calibanjoins … titles which all should never have languished out of print, ever.
And all by women.
What did Ian Fleming say?
Three times is enemy action.
And this is four times!
The goal to grantMrs.
Calibanand Ingalls their long-deserved reputation is well-timed, considering the publishing worlds broader effort to expand the literary canon.
Calibanis the perfect candidate to challenge the norm.
And what is perhaps most striking about the novella is the degree to whichMrs.
As Galchen puts it,Mrs.
Calibanavoids the hatchet-on-the-head, propaganda-opinion-piece way of thinking about these issues.
Indeed, as a feminist piece with a deep romantic core, that might best explainMrs.
Calibans ability to emerge as an unlikely literary classic.
Theres the sheer entertainment factor steamy Aquaman sex, anyone?
but then just underneath is a real depth, a quiet brilliance in its study of behavior and circumstance.
It cuts through the noise, enlightening while also resonating, soothing in its dreamy surrealism.
And isnt that the perfect recipe for an enduring classic?
It makes you wonder what was going on whenAlices Adventures in Wonderlandcame out, Epler cracks.
Were they in the middle of a war, maybe?
Because it seems like solace.
Mrs. Calibanis available for purchasehere.
