Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald & WHAT THERE IS TO SAY WE HAVE SAID: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell

ross macdonald
eudora welty
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

24 thoughts on “Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald & WHAT THERE IS TO SAY WE HAVE SAID: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell

  1. Cap'n Bob

    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.

    Reply
  2. Jeff Meyerson

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

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  3. Patti Abbott

    I am dying to read this one. So far none of the libraries around here have bought it. But I will keep looking.

    Reply
  4. Jeff Meyerson

    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.

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  5. Deb

    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!!

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  6. Jeff Meyerson

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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

      Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        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)

  7. Richard R.

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, I’m glad someone is still writing letters. Some of my favorite letters are collected in volumes of Henry James’s correspondence.

      Reply
  8. Patti Abbott

    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?

    Reply
  9. Cap'n Bob

    34 cents. The trick is finding a place that sells them anymore. The only place I usually find then is at tourist traps.

    Reply

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