Erica Jong, Sappho's Leap, and I: Interaction of the Novelist and the Scholar

Robert Ball and Erica Jong at Columbia University (March 25, 2009).

It [Leucas] has the temple of Apollo Leucatas and the leap believed to cure love, "where Sappho is said to have been the first," as Menander says, "while pursuing the haughty Phaon, to throw herself in her frenzied desire from the far-seen cliff …"

Strabo, Geography 10.2.9

Our Initial Meetings

I never expected to meet Erica Jong, let alone serve as her classics consultant for Sappho's Leap, but our paths crossed at a time when she was working on this novel and I was working on a project related to music. Interestingly enough, we had never met at Columbia University, where we were earning graduate degrees in the 1960s—Erica an MA in English and I a PhD in Greek and Latin. Nor did we meet on a sun-kissed beach in Hawaii, where I have pursued a career as professor of classics and (in recent years) as chair of a large modern and classical languages department. In July 2000 I found a copy of Erica's novel Any Woman's Blues in the papers of Joseph Machlis, professor of music, under whom I had studied and whose life and career I was researching. This book contained the following inscription on the title page: "For Joe Machlis / No more blues! / Erica Jong / Feb '92"—causing me to think about the tantalizing phrase "No more blues!" I also found a letter Machlis sent to Erica on February 14, 1992, in which he reminded her that they had spoken at a party for James Michener and had promised to exchange books. In that letter Machlis also mentioned that he wanted her to attend a party at his own house on March 13 and that he had enjoyed her comments in the newspaper about "the Rushdie outrage."¹ Machlis had met Erica at a party for a notable author, invited her to one of his musicales on New York's East Side, and appreciated the stand she took on Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Erica, of course, played a major role in having Rushdie's book published under the aegis of the Author's Guild after the initial edition caused the Ayatollah Khomeini to call for Rushdie's execution. On June 13, 2001, convinced that Erica knew Machlis and puzzling over that curious inscription, I decided to e-mail her to ask her if the inscription had some special meaning for Machlis. On June 14, 2001, Erica replied by asking me two short questions: "What period in classics do you specialize in? Do you read Aeolic Greek?"—without answering my question about the inscription. Bewildered by this reply, I e-mailed her later that day, informing her that although I specialized in Latin, I also knew ancient Greek and had a special interest in Greek and Roman poetry. In that same email I also stated: "I am guessing that you are now going to refer me to a classical source to explain the point of the inscription"—wondering if she would even answer me again.

On June 19, 2001, after almost a week had passed without any answer, I contacted Erica again, asking her if she had received my e-mail since I was still hoping that she would help me understand the phrase "No more blues!" On June 20, 2001, Erica replied to my question with the following e-mail:

I met Joseph Machlis at a variety of parties in New York and we had amusing conversations—none of which I remember. He had apparently read and been moved by my work. I did not know his work in musicology so he sent it to me, and I reciprocated by sending him autographed books with (presumably) witty inscriptions. We always planned to get together—in that New York way of "we must get together"—but we never did. As a novelist, I could turn this into a whole relationship—as in my novel Fanny where I have...