In the fall of 2004, an anonymous blogger who'd spent many years working as an editor in the publishing industry showed up to try and get some serious dialogue going about the difficulties of this crazy world o' books. And so, Mad Max Perkins was born, and his popularity spread far and wide, even getting print mentions in places like Newsday, Crain's and the Denver Post. And of course, the guessing games about his identity began.

But then, last July, he stopped blogging, and was much missed by those who hung out in his backblogs and debated, discussed and opined. Without Mad Max, it's pretty unlikely that editors, agents and other industry types would have stepped into the blogosphere, anonymously or otherwise.

And it seemed that he'd stopped for good until a post showed up on the site early yesterday, one that referenced one of Book Angst's most popular entries about the joys of the editorial process:

That interest was both gratifying and encouraging; for me it had the effect of making a little bit less preposterous the preposterous notion that's at the core of every author/editor partnership. Not just that we might be able to make a great book, but also that, somehow, this great book might wind up being embraced to some reasonable degree beyond the walls of our little two-seat incubator.

Now, as Mad Max reveals, the book exists -- it is DOPE, a noir gem written by Sara Gran and soon to be released by Penguin Putnam (and, full disclosure, a book I loved so much that my reactions appear as a blurb on Gran's website.) And by revealing the book's author and title, he has also, after a fashion, gone public with his own identity. Not on his own site -- as he left an extra layer for those inclined to find out -- but it's not difficult to deduce that the editor is Dan Conaway, who's been an executive editor at the publishing house since moving over from HarperCollins in June of 2005. Conaway so championed DOPE that he took it with him to Putnam, as the original deal was brokered in the final weeks of his HarperCollins tenure.

When reached for comment, Conaway further explained in an email that "if there are any fans of BookAngst 101 out there, I hope they'll consider buying Sara Gran's DOPE, reading it, and spreading the word about it." Whether it's characterized as "old school noir a la Thompson or Chandler" or more for those who appreciate literary crossover, Conaway's aim is for "some of the writers and reviewers and bloggers who have residual affection for Mad Max Perkins would make DOPE an elective purchase. And then, for good or ill, let us all know what they honestly think."

Gran is hardly the only author that Conaway has worked with, as Barry Eisler, Michael Gruber, Philip Margolin, Mark Winegardner, Jim Higdon, Neil Olson and Martha Raddatz count or have counted him as their editor. And just last night Publishers Marketplace reported on one of his most recent acquisitions: Josh Kendall's THE MAN WHO MADE LISTS, a new account of Peter Mark Roget, billed as "the eccentric genius whose obsession for list-making as a child saved him from the demons of depression and suicide that plagued his family and led him to devise the unique and masterful grid for organizing the English language that we know of today as Roget's Thesaurus."