Editing Quartet in Autumn (section)

==Publication history==
Pym conceived of the novel in 1972:<ref>{{cite book |last=Pym |first=Barbara |date=1984 |title=A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (ed. Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym) |location=New York |publisher=E.P. Dutton |page=267 |isbn=0525242341}}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text= Have thought of an idea for a novel based on our office move&nbsp;– all old, crabby characters, petty and obsessive, bad tempered&nbsp;– how easily one of them could have a false breast! But I'd better not write it till I have time to concentrate on it (look what happened to the last).
}}

At the time, Pym was still working full-time at the [[International African Institute]] in London, and recovering from a [[mastectomy]] after developing [[breast cancer|cancer]]. As she transitioned to [[retirement]] in late 1973 and 1974, Pym commenced work on the novel. Whereas most of her books had been written in short time spans, Pym took three years to write ''Quartet in Autumn''. She had not had a novel published since 1961, and had no realistic expectations that this would be either.<ref>Pym 1984, p.285</ref> She completed the novel in 1976, begun under the title ''Four Point Turn'' and, after being turned down by [[Jonathan Cape]], submitted it to [[Macmillan Publishers]] as ''Last Quartet''.<ref>Emily Stockard, ''The Testing of Barbara Pym'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Testing_of_Barbara_Pym/GtDeEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=rejected+%22Quartet+in+Autumn%22&pg=PA183&printsec=frontcover p. 184]</ref> The poet [[Philip Larkin]], who had a long-running correspondence with Pym, read the final draft and found it very strong. He was surprised by the sombre tone, so unlike Pym's earlier comic style, and suggested the title did not suit.<ref>{{cite book |last=Holt |first=Hazel |date=1990 |title=A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |page=248 |isbn=0525249370}}</ref> 

On 21 January 1977, ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' had run an article in which high-profile literary figures named their most underrated and overrated authors or books of the previous 75 years. Pym was chosen as the most underrated writer by both Larkin and [[Lord David Cecil]]; she was the only novelist to be selected by two contributors. On the strength of this review, literary interest in Pym was revived after 16 years and she was approached by several publishers for new material.<ref>[https://barbara-pym.org/about-barbara-pym-and-her-writings/finding-a-voice/ Pym, Barbara, ''Finding a Voice''], talk delivered on [[BBC Radio 3]] on 4 April 1978, archived on The Barbara Pym Society website, accessed 26 April 2020</ref> The finally retitled ''Quartet in Autumn'' was published by Macmillan in 1977. It was published in the United States by [[E.P. Dutton]] the following year, the second of her novels to be so (''[[Less than Angels]]'' had been published in a small run in the 1950s) and the first to have mainstream success in the US.      

The novel was now nominated for the 1977 Booker Prize, of which the winner was eventually [[Paul Scott (novelist)|Paul Scott]]'s ''[[Staying On]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://barbara-pym.org/quartet-in-autumn/|access-date=17 August 2020|title=Quartet in Autumn|date=22 November 2018 |publisher=Barbara Pym Society}}</ref> A year later it was released in Swedish translation as ''Höstlig kvartett''<ref> [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33639157-h-stlig-kvartett Good reads editions]</ref> and in 1995 as an audiobook.<ref>ISIS Audio Books 1995, [https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/5355/quartet-in-autumn-by-barbara-pym-read-by-elizabeth-stephan AudioFile magazine]</ref>