The Wainwright Letters.

DAVIES, Hunter (edited by)

ISBN 10: 0711231338 / ISBN 13: 9780711231337

Published by Frances Lincoln Publishers, 2011

About this Item

2011, 414pp. Illustrated. Cloth, with dust jacket. In very good condition. Pakketzending. Alfred Wainwright, the legendary fell walker and author of the incomparable and unique Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells was also a fluent, eloquent and diligent correspondent. Writing to old friends and to the many new ones gained through his books, and to his love, and later second wife, Betty, his letters display a much warmer, more sensitive and emotional character than his gruff popular image would suggest. Hunter Davies, Wainwright's biographer, has here collected a selection of letters that range from his early years in Blackburn to his established position as Borough Treasurer in Kendal, and cover all aspects of his professional and personal life, as well as the voluminous correspondence that was a consequence of writing and publishing the Pictorial Guides. The latter vividly illuminate many aspects of that turbulent but ultimately triumphant process, while the former present a picture of a dedicated public servant whose personal life had been deeply unhappy until late in life he found unexpected but transcendent love and happiness. In turn business-like and comic, wonderfully well informed and remarkably innocent, deeply moving and yet tough-minded, the letters present a vivid and unforgettable picture of one of the great but eccentric creative geniuses of the twentieth century.

Seller Inventory # 64932

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Wainwright Letters.
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Publishers
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0711231338
• ISBN 13: 9780711231337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • topografie

About this title

Synopsis

Alfred Wainwright (1907–1991) will always be known for his handwritten, hand-drawn Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. Throughout his life, he was an eloquent and witty correspondent, as this selection of letters, compiled by his biographer and fellow Lakeland resident Hunter Davies testifies. Written to friends, publishers, fans of his guidebooks, and to Betty, his great love and second wife, they reveal a more sensitive character, eccentric, tough-minded yet innocent, than his bluff public persona would suggest.

About the Author

Hunter Davies is the author of over 30 books, many of them with a Lake District connection, as well as biographies of Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and Eddie Stobart. His authorised biography of Wainwright appeared in 1995. He is married to the novelist and biographer Margaret Forster and they divide their time between London and their Lake District home in Loweswater.