For Your Eye Alone: Letters 1976-1995 - Hardcover

Davies, Robertson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0771035411 ISBN 13: 9780771035418

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 1999

Synopsis

Robertson Davies, one of North America's most beloved and critically acclaimed novelists, added an impeccable sense of style to all his diverse writings. Now, in this exciting publishing event, there is further cause for celebration with the publication of his selected letters. This volume for the first time gathers together previously unpublished letters that Davies wrote while at the height of his illustrious career.In these lively and provocative letters readers will find affectionate letters to his daughter, witty barbs to hostile critics, as well as amusing and profound observations on the creative life. Correspondence with famous figures like Sir John Gielgud and Margaret Atwood offers fascinating pieces of gossip: "... and Salvador Dali, at the next table, raised his eyebrows and popped his eyes to such a degree that I feared they might leave their moorings and bounce about the floor".Poignant, sometimes devilish, and always entertaining, these wonderful letters give a rarely seen portrait of the private Davies.

About this title

About the Author:

In addition to writing twelve novels, several volumes of essays, and a handful of plays, Robertson Davies (1913-1995) was an actor with the Old Vic Company in England, publisher of the Peterborough Ontario Examiner, and professor and first master of Masey College at the University of Toronto. He was the first Canadian to be inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

From Publishers Weekly:

In amassing the first collection of the late Canadian novelist's letters, Davies's biographer Grant (Robertson Davies: Man of Myth) discovered many had actually been framed, which says something about not only Davies's status as grand old man of Canuck letters, but also their sheer entertainment value. This volume covers the years from 1976, when he was 63, to his death in 1995; during this period, he was at last a successful public figure, as the master of Massey College at the University of Toronto and the successful novelist of the Deptford Trilogy. His status is elevated enough that he not only helpfully blurbs aspiring novelists' works, but also burlesques literary critics and book reviewers (though he warns one lucky recipient, "PS: Of course this letter is for your eye alone"). In the world of letters, his correspondents include fellow novelists John Irving, Mordecai Richler and Margaret Atwood, his editors and translators, and, of course, his readers, from schoolgirls to college professors. He deals with them all with equanimity and good humor, whether answering questions about his Jungian symbolism or explicating the Canada-Quebec culture wars and the propinquitous influence of the United States. As a public figure, he occasionally writes open letters to newspaper editors; in private his sentiments range from cheerfully curmudgeonly to plain irascible. His sporadic reminiscences about his early years in the theater in England and in provincial journalism might leave the reader wishing for letters from that younger Davies, but as these show, the great writer mastered the art of growing old gracefully and entertainingly. (Jan. 15) Forecast: Thanks to Davies's sterling reputation, this will be widely reviewed. Davies has legions of fans south of the Canadian border, and they will delight in this opportunity to meet the novelist in his own words.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0771035411
• ISBN 13: 9780771035418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Grant Judith Skelton