Wharton (1874-1937) was not only a prolific novelist and short-story writer but a prolific correspondent, and this selection of close to 400 letters, many never-before published, shows her at her epistolary best. Divided into seven chronological sections, each with a useful introduction, the letters reveal a woman of alert mind, broad interests, numerous moods and appealing warmth of heart. She also was endowed with a singular capacity to evoke the life around her, ranging from the exoticism of North Africa to the horrors of the World War I front. A large proportion of the letters are to her friends Henry James and Bernard Berenson, while others address Scott Fitzgerald, Andre Gide and Theodore Roosevelt's sister. The letters that show her at her most passionate, and most vulnerable, are those she wrote to her lover Morton Fullerton. R.W.B. Lewis won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1975 Wharton biography; Nancy Lewis is his wife. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

$29.95. lit Selected from some 4000 letters that span over 60 years, these 400 letters serve to represent Wharton's life and personality. Since her correspondence with Walter Berry and Henry James has not survived, it's probable that what we do have is "second-best." What remains does display Wharton's indefatigable energy, her cultivated intelligence, her unfailing social adeptness, and a kind of efficiency in both thought and emotion. Except for her correspondence with Morton Fullerton, her one-time lover, Wharton's letters are primarily the decisive acts of a social animal. They rarely grope toward the articulation of a feeling, nor do they explore the shadowy limits of her self-awareness. The products of a formidably armored personality, they will be of greatest use to a social historian of the period. Earl Rovit, City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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