Synopses & Reviews
Eavesdrop on one of the most celebrated literary friendships in American letters
"An epistolary feast for literary fans [and] a confidence booster for aspiring writers everywhere. A-" —Entertainment Weekly
"If friendship is an art, this volume is its masterpiece." —Lee Smith
"A remarkable testimony to friendship, literature, and an abiding love of life." —Richmond Times-Dispatch
What There Is to Say We Have Said bears witness to Welty and Maxwells more than fifty years of friendship and their lives as writers and readers. It serves as a chronicle of their literary world, their talk of Katherine Anne Porter, Salinger, Dinesen, Updike, Percy, Cheever, and more. Through more than three hundred letters, Marrs brings us the story of a true, deep friendship and an homage to the forgotten art of letter writing.
"A vivid picture of twentieth-century intellectual life and a record of a remarkable friendship... Glorious." —Houston Chronicle
"Full of great tidbits about The New Yorker back in the day ... Charming." —The New Yorker
"These letters evoke a lost world when events moved a bit more slowly, and friends could take the time to be both eloquently witty and generous with each other, and letters were unobtrusively artful about daily life. Welty and Maxwell are like two birds of the same species, calling to each other across the distances." —Charles Baxter
Review
"How rewarding to become the third person present in the discoveries of life and literature between Eudora Welty and William Maxwell. I have always believed the only and#8216;knowingand#8217; one can have of a fiction writers is through the fiction itself; but here, in the personal medium of to-and-fro wit and vitality, is to be had further experience of the writer Eudora Welty, whose stories, in particular, have opened my vision of human relations." and#8212;Nadine Gordimer and#160; "What a glorious collection! These letters make a map into the very heart of friendship and creativity. They are bursting with intelligence, tenderness, and insight. Every page is a privilege to read."
and#8212;Ann Patchett, author of The Patron Saint of Liars, Bel Canto, Run, among others and#160; "Something truly special happened each time Eudora Welty and William Maxwell wrote a letter to the other. Suzanne Marrs has collected more than 300 of those letters and set them into a time and context. Anyone who relishes and celebrates the magic use of words, storytelling, and friendship will treasure the end result forever. And, most likely, they will continue to pick it up and read from it forever. Itand#8217;s truly that kind of special."
and#8212;Jim Lehrer and#160; "A complex improvisation carried on for years by two artists for whom nothing in the realm of literature or feeling was remote."
and#8212;Alec Wilkinson, author of The Happiest Man in the World and My Mentor: A Young Writerand#8217;s Friendship with William Maxwell and#160; "This book lets us in on the happy fact that two splendid writers, who did not sacrifice humanity to career, were warmly admitted to each othersand#8217; lives."
and#8212;Richard Wilbur and#160; "These letters evoke a lost world when events moved a bit more slowly, and friends could take the time to be both eloquently witty and generous with each other, and letters were unobtrusively artful about daily life. Welty and Maxwell are like two birds of the same species, calling to each other across the distances."
and#8212;Charles Baxter and#160; "If friendship is an art, this volume is its masterpieceand#8212;the complex rendering of two long, literate lives well-lived, always written with care, intelligence, grace, and even humor! Miss Weltyand#8217;s gentle, constant humor is a revelation, providing the grace notes in this beautiful exchange. And, oh myand#8212;our own paltry e-mails pale beside these letters, as our scatter-shot lives seem trivial in comparison to the constancy and purpose of the correspondents."
and#8212;Lee Smith and#160; "A literary revelation. Suzanne Marrsand#8217;s editing of this rich collection is superlative."
and#8212;Roger Mudd, journalist and broadcaster and#160; "One of the richest and most riveting collections of famous-people letters to emerge in some time."
and#8212;Booklist
"A vivid snapshot of 20th-century intellectual life and an informative glimpse of the author-editor relationship, as well a tender portrait of devoted friendship."
and#8212;Kirkus Reviews and#12288;
Review
"A map into the very heart of friendship and creativity. Every page is a privilege to read."
—Ann Patchett
"An epistolary feast for literary fans [and] a confidence booster for aspiring writers everywhere. A-"
—Entertainment Weekly
"If friendship is an art, this volume is its masterpiece."
—Lee Smith
"A remarkable testimony to friendship, literature, and an abiding love of life...An invitation to draw up a chair and enjoy two good friends as interested in their rose gardens as their writing."
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
"A vivid picture of twentieth-century intellectual life and a record of a remarkable friendship... Glorious."
—Houston Chronicle
"Full of great tidbits about The New Yorker back in the day ... Charming."
—The New Yorker
"A raft of tender, day-to-day details ... Like eavesdroppers on a party line, were privy to everything ... In todays world of texting, Twitter and Facebook, where our empathy for others is often reduced to a ‘like button, coming across such a sustained account of a friendship is like shining a flashlight on the cave walls at Lascaux ... How fortunate we are that their kinship endured long enough for them to say everything there was to say."
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Beautifully expressive ... [Marrs] has performed an important service here ... A valuable record of the authors writing process ... Maxwell and Welty, of course, loved to write, and writers and readers will be awed to learn of both the macro and the micro."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
"[Maxwell and Weltys] love, a source of sustenance and strength between two great writers, is also a bright tonic for the readers of this volume, which affirms Weltys belief that to read someones letters ‘is in some way to admit him to our friendship."
—Christian Science Monitor
"These loving and revealing letters guide us back to the fiction of both authors."
—Wall Street Journal
"A valuable portrait of a unique and lasting friendship, and a celebration of a certain kind of joy that is rapidly disappearing—the joy of writing and sending, receiving and reading personal letters."
—Tulsa World
"This collection of letters takes us into the world of Eudora and William. We get to see how their friendship deepened over time and became something special."
—San Francisco Book Review
"To read What There Is to Say We Have Said is to feel the noise and speed of the present era fall away, to sense the natural world reasserting itself. Time slows, and you arrive in a more pastoral moment."
—The Progressive Reader
"For 50 years, Welty and Maxwell communicated in full detail, with deep and genuine affection, serving up revelations about themselves that give these literary figures a greatly wonderful human dimension . . . This is one of the richest and most riveting collections of famous-people letters to emerge in some time." —Booklist
"Inspiring . . . A vivid snapshot of 20th-century intellectual life and an informative glimpse of the author-editor relationship, as well a tender portrait of devoted friendship."
—Kirkus Reviews
"The correspondence of this volume [is] gracefully edited and annotated by Weltys biographer Marrs . . . Both correspondents were blessed with personality-plus, mirrored in these letters."
—Publishers Weekly
"How rewarding to become the third person present in the discoveries of life and literature between Eudora Welty and William Maxwell. I have always believed the only ‘knowing one can have of a fiction writers is through the fiction itself; but here, in the personal medium of to-and-fro wit and vitality, is to be had further experience of the writer Eudora Welty, whose stories, in particular, have opened my vision of human relations."
—Nadine Gordimer
"Something truly special happened each time Eudora Welty and William Maxwell wrote a letter to the other. Suzanne Marrs has collected more than 300 of those letters and set them into a time and context. Anyone who relishes and celebrates the magic use of words, storytelling and friendship will treasure the end result forever."
—Jim Lehrer
"This book lets us in on the happy fact that two splendid writers, who did not sacrifice humanity to career, were warmly admitted to each others lives. Its generosity of tone is such that the readers feels not a trespasser but a guest. Suzanne Marrss editing is worthy of a delightful text."
—Richard Wilbur
"A complex improvisation carried on for years by two artists for whom nothing in the realm of literature or feeling was remote."
—Alec Wilkinson
"A literary revelation. Suzanne Marrss editing of this rich collection is superlative."
—Roger Mudd, journalist and broadcaster
Review
PRAISE FOR ONE WRITER'S IMAGINATION
"Suzanne Marrs knows more about Eudora Welty than anyone else, and here she serves up a generous portion of her knowledge. In Marrs's clear-eyed gaze,Welty only goes on growing as a woman, a writer, a human being; and what Marrs sees is convincing."
-REYNOLDS PRICE
Review
"An absorbing portrait of an unexpected friendship."
-Entertainment Weekly
"The spirit of the indomitable Julia Child lives on in Joan Reardonand#8217;s AS ALWAYS, JULIA, a saucy soup-to-nuts compilation of the correspondence between Child and lifelong friend Avis DeVoto. As Julia said, and#8216;Life itself is the proper binge.and#8217; Letand#8217;s live it up!"
and#8211; Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair, Dec. issue "The womenand#8217;s frank, tender letters are an absolute delight to read, as much for their mouthwatering discussion of cuisine as for the palpable fondness they portray for one another. In an early note, DeVoto calls Childand#8217;s evolving manuscript "as exciting as a novel to read," and, indeed, so are their conversations."
-Booklist, starred reviewand#160;
"This epistolary testament to a close friendship will surely appeal to Child fans."
- Kirkus Reviews "Witty, enlightening and entertaining, these letters serve as a compelling companion volume to Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
- Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Suzanne Marrs—Welty's biographer and friend—has culled all the extant letters between Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, granting us a unique glimpse into the friendship of two of our country's most beloved literary icons. Bear witness to what began as a writer-editor relationship and bloomed into a life-long intimate conversation between two artists.
Synopsis
For over fifty years, Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, two of our most admired writers, penned letters to each other. They shared their worries about work and family, literary opinions and scuttlebutt, moments of despair and hilarity. Living half a continent apart, their friendship was nourished and maintained by their correspondence.and#160;
What There Is to Say We Have Said bears witness to Welty and Maxwelland#8217;s editorial relationshipsand#8212;both in his capacity as New Yorker editor and in their collegial back-andforth on their work. Itand#8217;s also a chronicle of the literary world of the time; read talk of James Thurber, William Shawn, Katherine Anne Porter, J. D. Salinger, Isak Dinesen, William Faulkner, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, Walker Percy, Ford Madox Ford, John Cheever, and many more.and#160;It is a treasure trove of reading recommendations.and#160;
Here, Suzanne Marrsand#8212;Weltyand#8217;s biographer and friendand#8212;offers an unprecedented window into two intertwined lives. Through careful collection of more than 300 letters as well as her own insightful introductions, she has created a record of a remarkable friendship and a lyrical homage to the forgotten art of letter writing.
Synopsis
"A complex improvisation, carried on for years, by two artists for whom nothing in the realm of literature or feeling was remote." —Alec Wilkinson For over fifty years, Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, two of our most admired writers, penned letters to each other. They shared their worries about work and family, literary opinions and scuttlebutt, moments of despair and hilarity. Living half a continent apart, they nourished and maintained their friendship through correspondence. What There Is to Say We Have Said bears witness to Welty and Maxwells editorial relationships — both in his capacity as her New Yorker editor and in their collegial back and forth on their work. It also serves as a chronicle of the literary world of the time; read talk of James Thurber, William Shawn, Katherine Anne Porter, J. D. Salinger, Isak Dinesen, William Faulkner, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, Walker Percy, Ford Madox Ford, John Cheever, and many more. It is a treasure trove of reading recommendations. Here, Suzanne Marrs — Weltys biographer and friend — offers an unprecedented window into two intertwined lives. Through careful collection of more than three hundred letters as well as her own insightful introductions, she has created a record of a remarkable friendship, an illuminating look at artists in community, and a lyrical homage to the forgotten art of letter writing.
Synopsis
Eudora Welty's works are treasures of American literature. When her first short-story collection was published in 1941, it heralded the arrival of a genuinely original writer who over the decades wrote hugely popular novels, novellas, essays, and a memoir, One Writer's Beginnings, that became a national bestseller. By the end of her life, Welty (who died in 2001) had been given nearly every literary award there was and was all but shrouded in admiration.
In this definitive and authoritative account, Suzanne Marrs restores Welty's story to human proportions, tracing Welty's life from her roots in Jackson, Mississippi, to her rise to international stature. Making generous use of Welty's correspondence-particularly with contemporaries and admirers, including Katherine Anne Porter, E. M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen-Marrs has provided a fitting and fascinating tribute to one of the finest writers of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
This celebrated volume begins when Nin is about to publish her first book and ends when she leaves Paris for New York. Edited and with a Preface by Gunther tuhlmann; Index.
Synopsis
This dishy and delightful, never-before-published correspondence between America's queen of food, Julia Child, and her confidante and mentor Avis DeVoto, shows not only the blossoming of a lifelong friendship, but also an America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.
Synopsis
With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known around the world by her first name alone. But despite that familiarity,and#160;how muchand#160;do we
really know of the inner Julia? and#160; Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie
Julie and Julia, open the window on Juliaand#8217;s deepest thoughts and feelings. This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Juliaand#8217;s creation of
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, firstand#160;as a new brideand#160;in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresomeand#160;as she follows her diplomat husbandand#160;in his postingsand#160;to Nice, Germany, and Norway. and#160; With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, andand#160;sexual mores, these astonishingand#160;letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.
Synopsis
A compelling reflection on wisdom, friendship, and the craft of writing, My Mentor is also the touching story of a young man's education at the hands of a master, William Maxwell. At age twenty-four, Alec Wilkinson approached Maxwell in hopes of being taught to write. A quarter century of friendship followed.
As a fiction editor of The New Yorker, Maxwell was unquestionably one of the past century's most respected editors; as the author of the masterpieces They Came Like Swallows and So Long, See You Tomorrow, he was one of its greatest American writers. His unparalleled ear for language and eye for detail, his depth of understanding and experience, make his instructions on writing an essential guide to the craft. In honoring this great man of letters, Wilkinson creates a "deft and sympathetic portrait" (New York Times Book Review).
About the Author
Culinary historian, cookbook author, and biographer Joan Reardon is the author of M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters:andnbsp;Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table,andnbsp;M.F.K. Fisher Among the Pots and Pans, Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher, and Oysters: a Culinary Celebration. Reardon, who has aandnbsp;PhD in English literature, won an IACP Award for culinary writing, publishes and edits a quarterly newsletter for Les Dames dand#8217;Escoffier Chicago, and serves on the advisory board of Gastronomica magazine.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction 1
1. and#8220;Never Lose Letters from an Editorand#8221;: 1942and#8211;1943 17
2. and#8220;Wonderful to Be a Writer. Wonderful to Grow Roses.
Wonderful to Careand#8221;: 1943and#8211;1954 21
3. and#8220;Similar Discoveriesand#8221;: 1954and#8211;1959 70
4. and#8220;Stubborn Enough to Be a Writerand#8221;: 1960and#8211;1966 141
5. and#8220;Your Heart Down on Paperand#8221;: 1966and#8211;1970 194
6. and#8220;So Much Honor Coming Down on My Headand#8221;: 1971and#8211;1980 278
7. and#8220;What There Is to Say We Have Saidand#8221;: 1981and#8211;1996 370
Acknowledgments 445
Notes 446
Index 480