A+E INSIDE: < REVIEW: FST’s ‘Visit Joe Whitefeather’ exposes tall tale concocted with good intentions. 5
BLACK
TIE INSIDE:
GALA ROYALE: Sarasota Ballet honors Executive Director Joseph Volpe. 6 >
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT MAY 4, 2023
YOUROBSERVER.COM
The Resurrection of Robert Plunket
Robert Plunket inspects the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in September 2022.
The Sarasota gossip columnist’s 1983 novel, ‘My Search for Warren Harding,’ is being rereleased. Does stardom await? MONICA ROMAN GAGNIER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
M
ost local readers recognize the name Robert Plunket as Sarasota Magazine’s longtime gossip columnist, “Mr. Chatterbox.” Plunket’s byline also has graced the pages of the Observer, where he has written about distinctive homes. However, few Sarasotans know that Plunket is the author of a 1983 novel, “My Search for Warren Harding.” But after years of being a “Forrest Gump” of sorts, Plunket could find himself in the spotlight. “My Search for Warren Harding” is being reissued on June 6 by New Directions Publishing and the literary world is taking notice. The new version includes a foreward by essayist Danzy Senna, which was published April 26 by The Paris Review. Plunket’s book follows a scheming academic who will do anything to get his hands on love letters written by the 29th president. Set mostly in Los Angeles, “Warren Harding” is a hilarious look at life on the periphery of stardom, a vantage point that Plunket knows well. Coincidentally, “After Hours,” a Martin Scorsese film in which Plunket had a small but memorable role, is also being rereleased by the Criterion Collection. As he prepares for his closeup, Plunket talked about the blurred line between truth and fiction, political correctness and book banning.
Why did you write “My Search for Warren Harding”? I had a boring job in an office. Everybody loved my business reports. They were hilarious. So I started thinking, “I’ll write a novel. How hard can it be?” But I needed a subject. I was a big reader. I loved books about politicians and their private lives. Harding was the Trump of his day but with a much more benevolent character. One girlfriend, one mistress after another, all the time with a crabby older wife keeping him on a very short leash. Then comes along a teenage girl from his hometown in Ohio named Nan Britton. She was calculating and ambitious and set her sights on him. They had a long affair and she gave birth to his daughter. When he died — unexpectedly and still in office in 1923 —and she was left out of the will, she wrote a book (“The President’s Daughter”) about the affair that caused quite a scandal. I loved the book. When I found out she was still alive — this was 1980 — and living in California, I started thinking. She probably has old love letters and such. It was like that Henry James novella “The Aspern Papers.” A plot began forming in my mind ... What was the reaction to the book when it came out? Mixed. Some people loved it. Other people, mostly jerks, hated it. I’ve kept a list of their names. Tell me about the circumstances surrounding the rerelease of “My Search for Warren Harding.” Why is this happening now? The publisher tells me it’s a forgotten classic of American literature. Sounds about right.
Courtesy photos
Is the book autobiographical? Obviously not, because you were born in Texas and the protagonist was born in Pittsburgh. But are there themes that inform the book that have run through your life? “Autobiographical” isn’t the right word. But being a new writer uncertain how to proceed, I modeled the main character, a historian who’s after the letters, on myself. I didn’t know how to create a fictional character, so I had him do what I would have done under the same circumstances. Now, I find out in Danzy Senna’s introduction that I created a brilliant portrait of “a closeted gay white man with a narcissist’s insecure vapid center. A superficial, arrogant homophobe.” That took a little swallowing. Is the historical stuff in your book true? It’s all true. Or rather, it’s trueish. It was tricky because the old lady — Harding’s mistress — was still alive when I wrote it, and the publisher didn’t want to get sued. I had to rewrite several sections with a lawyer looking over my shoulder. Even though many details have been changed, it’s pretty accurate as to what really happened during the Harding presidency. Several years ago, a trove of Harding love letters were discovered. They were from another affair he had. And the letters were exactly the way I imagined them! Forty pages long, full of purple prose and detailed descriptions of his youknow-what. By today’s standards, “My Search for Warren Harding” is politically incorrect. In addition to racial and sexist slurs, there is a lot of fat-shaming. What’s
“My Search for Warren Harding” is being reissued on June 6 by New Directions Publishing.
your response to that? “My Search for Warren Harding” could never be published today. Now they have people called “sensitivity editors” who make you change the things that might offend people. My writer friend Ann Beattie has a new book coming out, and they made her change the expression “bag woman.” Apparently they didn’t want all the bag women who read Ann Beattie to be offended. In my defense, the world is full of casual racism and people who say terrible things about other people. I write about it, but it doesn’t mean I condone it. SEE PLUNKET PAGE 2