Letter writing is a dying art. When was the last time you actually wrote a letter (and mailed it–not emailed it)? The last letters I remember writing were to Bob Napier when he was editing MYSTERY & DETECTIVE MONTHLY, the late lamented letterzine. But that was over a decade ago. I read Meanwhile There Are Letters because I’m a fan of both Ross Macdonald and Eudora Welty. Their wit and intelligence shows on every page of this book. The topics vary, but I was most interested in Macdonald’s thoughts about writing detective fiction. Welty’s pithy comments led to read the other collection of her letters, this time with William Maxwell, her editor at The New Yorker. Maxwell and Welty discuss James Thurber, Katherine Anne Porter, J. D. Salinger, Isak Dinesen, William Faulkner, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, Walker Percy, For Madox Ford, John Cheever, and more writers. Just as letter writing is a Lost Art, letter reading is in danger of fading away, too. But, before it does you might want to indulge in reading these wonderful letters. GRADE: A
I’m as guilty as the next person as a non-paper letter writer. Nit pick: It’s Mystery & Detective Monthly, with an ampersand. I think it’s been a dozen years since I drove a stake into its heart.
Bob, I really loved MYSTERY & DETECTIVE MONTHLY. There were a lot of characters in that zine!
That was fast. Just read the review of the Macdonald/Welty book last week. I agree we don’t write letters. I can’t remember the last time I did, and I used to be a big letter writer.
But I also like reading the letters of others. Of course I’ve read several long collections of Henry James’s letters, but I’ve also read the correspondence of John D. MacDonald with Dan Rowan, as well as letters from Harold Nicolson, Arnold Bennett & H. G. Wells, Ernest Hemingway, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, George Orwell, C. S. Lewis, V. S. Naipaul, and John Steinbeck. I’ve also read several collections of letters home from soldiers in Vietnam.
Jeff, I’m fond of novels written in letter form. My favorite is the 1000+ page CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson. The JDM/Rowan collection is compelling.
I am dying to read this one. So far none of the libraries around here have bought it. But I will keep looking.
Patti, I’m on good terms with the librarians here. They buy everything I ask for. Ask, and you shall receive.
I have it on reserve, Patti. Speaking of books, I meant to tell you that someone left volume 1 of the massive Barbara Stanwyck biography in the laundry room library here, so if you want it let me know. If it is still there I will send it to you.
George, I also like books like that. Also books written in diary form. I liked ANNA’S BOOK by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell), written as a 70-year diary.
Jeff, I’m fond of diary novels, too. Loved Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding.
Jeff–what a coincidence–I just finished ANNA’S BOOK a couple of weeks ago. Great book (although more diary than letters). John P. Marquand’s THE LATE GEORGE APPLEY is also written primarily in letters–the sly part being that a lot is communicated by what the letters don’t say.
As for letter writing myself, unless you count the year-end wrap-up that goes with Christmas cards, I haven’t written a personal letter in well over a decade, perhaps closer to 15 years. And I don’t even use email so much anymore–I primarily use texting. OMG!!
Deb, I don’t have a cell phone so I don’t text. But all my students do…constantly.
Sorry Jeff–didn’t notice that you did say that ANNA’S BOOK is written in diary form.
That’s OK. I was trying to remember some of the other novels in diary form I’ve read over the years. I think Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey’s A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENT MEANS was another.
Jeff, off the top of my head I can think of a few novels written in diary form:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Dangling Man by Saul Bellow
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
Of course I’ve read DRACULA and FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.
Also read, in diary or letter format:
THE DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE (Sayers & Eustace)
THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS (C. S. Lewis)
SOME OF YOUR BLOOD (Sturgeon)
UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE (Kaufman)
THE ANDERSON TAPES (Sanders)
LAST DAYS OF SUMMER (Steve Kluger)
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY (Fielding)
YOU KNOW ME AL (Ring Lardner)
THE FAN (Bob Randall)
Adrian Mole series (Sue Townsend)
84 CHARING CROSS ROAD (Hanff; non fiction)
Jeff, nice list!
I don’t much like epistolary novels, and have read very few letter collections. As for letters, wrote one a couple of weeks ago, hand written on stationary. I have some friends with whom I exchange written letters, because we like them and enjoy receiving them in the mails.
Rick, I’m glad someone is still writing letters. Some of my favorite letters are collected in volumes of Henry James’s correspondence.
Wasn’t Ella Minnow Pea all in letters? I have checked every library in the state of Michigan and not one bought it. What’s going on here?
Patti, you have to lobby for MEANWHILE THERE ARE LETTERS!
Do post cards count? I send two of them out every week.
Bob, I haven’t sent a postcard in years. I don’t even know what a postcard stamp costs!
A couple of my favorite letter collections are those of James Thurber and Harold Ross.
Rick, I like Thurber’s letters, too.
34 cents. The trick is finding a place that sells them anymore. The only place I usually find then is at tourist traps.