Fri 4 Jan 2008
Publishing house St Martins is about to release the novel Home School by Charles Webb ’61, a sequel to his autobiographical tale The Graduate, which he wrote during his time at Williams. Although that early novel was made into a classic film, Webb received only $20,000 for both the film rights and the future film rights to the characters, and he has had a hard life since then:
In April 2006, Jack Malvern, a reporter for the London Times, tracked Webb down to Hove, in Sussex, England. He discovered that Webb, at 66, was about to be evicted from his apartment and that he had written a sequel to “The Graduate” but was reluctant to publish it because the film rights to the characters were owned by Canal Plus. Sidey, an editor at Hutchinson Books in London, immediately reached out to Webb, and within a month a deal was in place. “I read about his plight, and I tracked him down,” Sidey said, adding, “It is very easy for people of quality to slip through the cracks, especially in publishing.” The book is dedicated to Malvern.
The reports on Webb’s life read like a cautionary tale of early success — he has moved almost constantly during his adult life, he has held a series of menial jobs to support himself, he’s been homeless to the point that the check for his advance for “Home School” was mailed to him at a Salvation Army shelter, and he is still in debt while caring for his lifelong partner, who recently suffered a nervous breakdown. Despite the easygoing charm of his novels, one expects to meet a shivering wreck.
Instead, the living sequel to “The Graduate” greeted me not long ago at the train station at Eastbourne, a small town on the south coast of England. At 68, Webb is tall, thin and elegant, with a full head of gray hair, the picture of Southern California languid bonhomie set amid the drizzle and overcast skies of small town Britain. Gulls were flying overhead, the only sign that we were near the sea.
He asked if we could run an errand before talking, and we walked to the local supermarket where he spent $3 on produce (a sweet potato, broccoli and two apples) before calling for a taxi. He talked for a while about a play he is writing, concerning a celebrity journalist who slowly discovers that artists are the minority. He asked about virtual reality and second sight. We taxied to his current home, an old-age hostel of sorts.
Webb explained that the place has been a great help to him and his lifelong partner, a woman named Fred. “It’s a lot like a college dorm, except people keep dying here. Two people have died in the last 10 days,” he said with a shrug. He left me in the communal area — a row of a dozen electric wheelchairs lines one wall — to check on Fred. He came back down to tell me she was not feeling well enough for visitors today. Then he mentioned sunnily that he was wearing his “dead man walking jacket,” an item he recently received from a “deceased farmer.”
It’s a perfectly pleasant and friendly facility, but one can’t imagine Mike Nichols or Dustin Hoffman or Buck Henry even making a movie here, let alone residing here. The fact remains that the film version of “The Graduate” made over $120 million, that Webb received a flat fee of $20,000 for the rights to his book and his characters (in perpetuity) and an additional $10,000 after the initial success. And reading the original novel of “The Graduate,” it is striking to see how much of the novel’s dialogue ended up in the screenplay. Indelicate though it may be, surely he must at times wonder where his mansion is.


« Nananana | Not Easy With » |
14 Responses to “Home School”
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post
If a comment you submitted does not show up, please email us at eph at ephblog dot com. Please note that commenters are required to use a valid email address when submitting comments.
FROSH mom says:
Beautiful writing by the reporter.
I found this statement by Webb to be so…well, sad.
“People in the Arts are not allowed to lead normal lives”… they are either “super-rich” or “penniless”.
I know so many (in the Arts) for which that just isn’t true. It does go without saying that many artists are terrible money managers, and generally, not adept at organizing their lives. But it is possible to lead a “normal” and comfortable life. Definitely a risky way of making a living, but exciting.
I wish Webb all the best and better financial success with his new book. With his talent, he deserves it. He seems to have accomplished artistic fulfillment, and that is no small thing. But comfort should also be his due.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:56 amfrank uible says:
ronit: As I recall, this poignant subject was touched upon here a few years ago. At that time, I blogged here in response to the effect that a lecture by Webb at Williams might be educationally worthy. An anonymous EphBlogger scoffed at that notion and Webb himself. Today’s piece reinforces my earlier view.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:06 pmDarcy Dalrymple says:
Mr. Webb does not wonder where his mansion is. His life is that of a “dead man’s walking jacket.” He is a dead man walking amongst the living. He has deliberately chosen to live apart of society and himself and the world. Mr. Webb is not worth a single farthing. He chose his lifestyle. His homelessness was of his own hand and doing.
How can you talk about him being a role model for Williams students? His choices throughout his life is not the result of mismanagement, but of self deprecation and low self-esteem. Your are misunderstanding the psychology of this person. Notwithstanding his having attending Williams College, why should Williams College subsidize such wretches? He chose an ignominious existence. Why enable such a dysfunctional person? What merit could he possibly bring to the table of the English Literature department? He chose to live with his children in a nudist colony. He fed copies of his published work with cranberries to his children. He has forsaken his soul and scattered his gifts to the four winds. What could he possibly breathe into our young minds?
With regards those of an artistic bent, people in the arts can and do lead productive lives. In that some of them have difficulties, it is because they take unprecedented risks regarding lifestyle choices and enjoy to rake society over the coals. With regards to organizing lives and managing finances, most people are in some measure incapable of organizing their lives and managing their finances. This in many cases does not merely apply to people in the arts. Artistic life can be exciting but in some cases it is filled with much risk and disparaging trade-offs.
Where art is today and the meaning of art is a very important subject but not for this blog. Perhaps you will insert a blog worth consideration of the subject.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:55 pm& says:
Sounds like he’s probably not able to travel right now because of Fred, unfortunately.
I realized that I’ve never read The Graduate, so I’m buying it and the new book. I’ll look forward to the movie.
January 4th, 2008 at 5:20 pmronit says:
Darcy: you prove again that being a noxious undergraduate is the best substitute for real life experience.
January 5th, 2008 at 12:11 amfrank uible says:
Darcy: Loosen up, both literally and figuratively. Your sphincter is twitching.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:21 amFROSH mom says:
I think Webb is a great starting point for a discussion about art.
Artists are quite often “square pegs” in our “round hole” world. Truly unique vision often hovers on the edge of “wierd” or “dysfunctional”.
Look at all the wonderful “outsider” art just being recognized, then there was Van Gogh…my gosh, I could go on and on with examples of artists and writers and musicians etc. etc.. many of them completely unable to function well within society. Webb certainly does better than many.
Granted, I don’t know the man, and I haven’t read his books. But he seems worthy of more respect and consideration.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:59 amDarcy Dalrymple says:
Mr. Uible:
I do not understand your comments. Why are you so anal?
Art is about beauty and insight into the possibility of life’s interstitial aspects of observing life through numerous points of observation. Why denigrate it? Why compare art to sphincters?
Mr. Webb is not an artist. He is a most unhappy person. Should such a person be a paragon for me and my student colleagues?
You are not someone I should trust in confidence and guidance.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:33 amkthomas says:
“D’arcy,”
The last time you posted, I wondered if it was a time to try to speak something more about Katie Craig, and the other William students who have tried to take their lives, and the nature of the similar and sometimes terrible paths we sometimes tread through life, — and our mistakes.
Charles Webb and his work have always had a special significance to me, not only because I moved from Williams to Berkeley, and found the places familiar– but, for instance, because Hank Payne’s —–‘ —— kept sending young Williams students for ‘years off’ at Berkeley; and because… and because… the concept is “over-determination,” because so much of Charles Webb is an explanation, a narrative, of my time at Williams, of the people I knew, and life and death for them.
And then there is the fact that what is hard to give a name here, was at the center of events at Williams which destroyed careers and shaped lives and commitments… events whose is controversy has barely been alluded to on this blog, perhaps because their reality, their complexity, and their difficulty, escapes our efforts.
Though I’ve considered writing a sort of sequel to Charles, which visits Williams, just about thirty years later.
For parallels, you might look at Kundera’s first novel, about a college student… or Tristan und Isolde or Werther or… for that matter: the “Bildungsroman,” ‘the tale’ of how an ‘education’ which is neither just classroom instruction, nor petty formalism, creates an individual and history.
Is Milton mere literature and play, or biography and history and figurative inter-pretation of the dark and murky events which take their place on the stage of ‘the world?’ Does art stand outside the world as a distant G-d, or speak to us as a person?
I also like to think occasionally– it is up for interpretation– that — —– knew that the students they sent to Berkeley would be found by those Williams grads– not just I– who had moved to Berkeley and taken moral paths and positions similar to Charles’. On this, I also suppose I still have some reconsideration to do tonight.
A part of Williams does tend to look after our own, by nature, at all cost, and another thing I admire in Charles is his sacrifice and devotion for another– a human value that is some way carried and inculcated by our institutions, whatever Stanley Fish may say. Individuals’ interpretations of the world, I learned long ago, usually reflect far more about them and their character, than about the world– and surely if autobiography and self-promotion has ever masqueraded as “pure literature and commentary,” …
As for ‘artist,’ Charles’ is to me a narrative and record of the common paths and challenges we all face, of ‘our life and times’ and what makes them up, and of aspects of Williams…
But enough for now–
January 9th, 2008 at 3:07 amFROSH mom says:
Humans are so varied, so complex, so beset with different circumstances…we just can’t know what some may have to overcome. And we just can’t judge, difficult as it is, there is nothing positive to be had from judging. Observe, maybe, and learn.
Sometimes I think there is a price to be paid for “vision”….”insight”. It’s as if you have to give up a bit of a toehold to get the “view”, to see the “magic”; to look over the edge. And the trick is keeping enough of a grasp, to be able to stay on solid ground… and yet see as much of the view as possible. Many, just slip.
January 9th, 2008 at 11:18 amkthomas says:
EM,
It very hard to respond, and my post above could use editing for clarity etc– which I’ve discovered WordPress will not let me do.
One part of the ’92 reunion, at three different points, was that after Katie Craig’s passing was mentioned, someone pulled me aside to discuss the suicide attempt of someone in my class.
Somewhere in that time, I also passed by an office which happened to be open… when the topic of Katie came up, the professor inside said “we still don’t do a very good job.”
And thought at the time that Williams does a fairly good job: unlike many other places, the faculty and staff give up large portions of their lives to watch and worry.
And then are those who, like Charles Webb, face the reality day-to-day.
Enough.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm& says:
Ken –
Thank you for taking the risk of talking about this (and for going back and clarifying that earlier post when you probably just wanted to walk away from this very painful subject).
This whole subject scares the bejesus out of me. Knowing that many mental illnesses first surface (or first become crippling) during the late teens and early twenties, I probably would be quietly terrified to be an administrator, coach, professor, or mentor at a residential college like Williams, and I am extremely grateful for those caring eyes. May they be enough.
My reunion two cycles ago was haunted by thoughts of a classmate who had recently killed himself. I don’t know what to say to you but I just want to acknowledge your posts and to thank you for them, and also for what they will add to the reading of Webb’s books that I am about to start.
January 9th, 2008 at 6:26 pmFROSH mom says:
It can be very easy to miss signs that indicate someone is troubled, or struggling, or lonely…especially on a college campus where so much is going on, and students are caught up in trying to make their own lives work. It is a difficult time under the best of circumstances. There are such high expectations, such high standards at a place like Williams. Finding a balance is challenging. As a parent, you just hope your kid finds that balance.
I don’t know what it was like before, but, I really feel that the dorm system they have in place, with the JA’s and the small entries, is about the best I have heard of. There are regular get-togethers, lots of contact on a daily basis, a real mix of students within one set-up. It seems well thought out…and conducive to awareness of others.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:27 pmFROSH mom says:
It is late, and sometimes I regret my late posts…but nevertheless, I just feel the need to add something here. It has to do with “paths taken”…”past decisions” etc…
When I think back to some of the situations I put myself into when I was young…it might be safe to say, that I am very fortunate to be here. But, I am…and it is all part of my package now…who I am, what I have to offer, and what I have to share. And that to me, is valuable. It assuages whatever regrets may rear their ugly heads.
That said, I so appreciate it when others share their lessons learned, their insights, their perspectives after the fact…
I consider it a gift.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:03 am