Mary Gaitskill (born November 11, 1954 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993), and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998). She married writer Peter Trachtenberg in 2001. As of 2005, she lived in New York City; Gaitskill has previously lived in Toronto, San Francisco, and Marin County, CA, as well as attending the University of Michigan where she earned her B.A. November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New Yorkers first cover, which is reprinted most years on the magazines anniversary. ... An issue of Harpers Magazine from 1905 Another issue, from November 2004 Harpers Magazine (or simply Harpers) is a monthly general-interest magazine covering literature, politics, culture, and the arts. ... This article is about the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. ...

Gaitskill made her book debut in 1988 with the short-story collection Bad Behavior, having been trying to publish her work since the age of 23. Her fiction typically is about female characters dealing with their own inner conflicts, and her subject matter matter-of-factly includes many "taboo" subjects such as prostitution, addiction, and sado-masochism. Gaitskill says that she herself had worked as a stripper and call girl. She showed similar candor discussing her being raped in her essay "On Not Being a Victim" for Harper's. Prostitution is the sale of sexual services. ... Addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behaviour regardless of its consequences. ... Flogging demonstration at Folsom Street Fair 2004. ...

The film Secretary (2002) is based on the short story of the same name in Bad Behavior, although the two have little in common. She characterized the film as "the Pretty Woman version, heavy on the charm (and a little too nice)," but observed that the "bottom line is that if [a film adaptation is] made you get some money and exposure, and people can make up their minds from there." Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... Secretary DVD Secretary is a 2002 black comedy film based on the novella Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill. ...

The novel Two Girls, Fat and Thin follows the childhood and adult lives of Justine Shade (thin) and Dorothy Never (fat). Justine works through her sadomasochistic issues while Dorothy works through her up-and-down commitment to the philosophy of "Definitism" and its founder "Anna Granite" (thinly-veiled satires of Objectivism and Ayn Rand). When journalist Justine interviews Dorothy for an exposé of Definitism, an unusual relationship begins between the two women. In an interview, Gaitskill discussed what she was trying to convey about Justine via her sadomasochistic impulses: Objectivism is the philosophical system developed by Russian-American philosopher and writer Ayn Rand. ... Ayn Rand (IPA: , February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982), born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum, was best known for developing the philosophy of Objectivism and for writing the novels We the Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. ...

It's a kind of inward aggression. It seems like self-contempt, but it's really an inverted contempt for everything. That's what I was trying to describe in her. I would say it had to do with her childhood, not because she was sexually abused, but because the world that she was presented with was so inadequate in terms of giving her a full-spirited sense of herself. That inadequacy can make you implode with a lot of disgust. It can become the gestalt of who you are. So the masochism is like "I'm going to make myself into a debased object because that is what I think of you. This is what I think of your love. I don't want your love. Your love is shit. Your love is nothing."

Veronica was a National Book Award Nominee in 2005. The book is centered on the narrator and her friend Veronica, a fashion model who contracts AIDS. Gaitskill mentioned working on the novel in a 1994 interview, but that same year she put it aside until 2001. Other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and a PEN/Faulkner Award nomination for Because They Wanted To in 1998. The National Book Award is one of the most important literary prizes in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and are presently awarded in each... Its all fun and games until someone gets AIDS. Stick with Crack. ...

Gaitskill's favorite writers have changed over time, as she noted in a 2005 interview, but one constant is the author Vladimir Nabokov, whose Lolita "will be on my ten favorites list until the end of my life." Another consistently-named influence is Flannery O'Connor. Despite her well-known S/M themes, Gaitskill does not consider Sade himself an influence: "I don't think much of Sade as a writer, although I enjoyed beating off to him as a child." Vladimir Nabokov This page is about the novelist. ... Lolita Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1955. ... Flannery OConnor Mary Flannery OConnor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American author. ...

Bibliography

• Bad Behavior (1988) (stories) ISBN 0671658719
• Two Girls, Fat and Thin (1991) (novel) ISBN 0671685406
• Because They Wanted To (1997) (stories) ISBN 0684808560
• Veronica (2005) (novel) ISBN 0375421459

External links

• Author interview (2005?) at failbetter.com. Notable for a certain impatience with questions about "writers" as if Gaitskill's being a writer made her an authority on the species.
• Author interview (1994) with Alexander Laurence. Quite candid.
• Author interview (2005) for Barnes & Noble's "Meet the Writers" website. Includes lists of her current favorites in fiction and film.
• Article ("Mary, Mary, Less Contrary" by Emily Nussbaum) in New York magazine (Nov. 14, 2005 issue).

The March 2006 Harper's had a notable review (not online, it appears) of Veronica by Wyatt Mason that also covered Gaitskill's earlier work. At Slate.com, Mason called Veronica "the best book of fiction in recent memory."