Rachel Ingalls, an American writer living in London who "toiled for most of her life in obscurity" until 1986 when the British Book Marketing Council named Mrs. Caliban (1982) one of the 20 best novels by living American writers after World War II, died March 6, the New York Times reported. She was 78.
Although Ingalls earned some recognition, "it was fleeting. She never sought the limelight, and it rarely found her," the Times wrote. In late 2017, however, editors at New Directions rediscovered and reissued Mrs. Caliban in the U.S., where it "won a new round of flattering reviews... and suddenly an Ingalls revival was underway." Last month, New Directions reissued Binstead's Safari (1983). Her 11 books also include Times Like These; The Pearlkillers; Something to Write Home About; Be My Guest; and Theft.
Despite a cancer diagnosis in her late 70s, she began to enjoy the recognition that had long eluded her. Sarah Daughn, her sister, said Ingalls "was so happy" as her stories gained wider readership and "felt she was getting to say everything she wanted to say."
In the Chicago Tribune, author John Warner wrote: "I had been hotly anticipating the release of Binstead's Safari ever since reading Mrs. Caliban, and here it is, just as the author is not around to appreciate its reappearance. It's a bitter pill. I'd been wanting to write about the brilliance of Mrs. Caliban for just about year. There is a file on my computer with the start of a column from last May. I decided not to finish it, because it wasn't timely, since the reissue of Mrs. Caliban had been out for a year and Binstead's Safari wouldn't be out for another 10 months. I regret it now. Why would I worry about making sure my discussion of a book is timely when we know that the books we most treasure are timeless?"