Volume 9, Number 3 · August 24, 1967
Crier in the Wilderness
By Robert M. Adams
The Edward Dahlberg Reader
edited with an Introduction by Paul Carroll
New Directions, 352 pp., $6.50
Epitaphs of Our Times: The Letters of Edward Dahlberg
anonymously edited by Edwin Seaver
Braziller, 301 pp., $6.95 (the way to find out who edited Epitaphs of Our Times is to look at the "Editor's Note," which is signed "E.S.," then at Mr. Dahlberg's letter headed "Introduction" and addressed to "Dear Edwin," and finally in the Index, under "Edwin," where he is at last identified as (Edwin Seaver). A most mannered and labyrinthine modesty!)
Edward Dahlberg, the distinguished crier in the wilderness and long-time literary martyr, has now attained the double dignity of an Edward Dahlberg Reader and a collection of his letters under the resonant, somber title of Epitaphs of Our Times—the former published by New Directions, the latter by Braziller. These are projects which, as we learn by reading the Epitaphs, have been some time in contemplation. They have a history, and indeed contain some part of it themselves, after the fashion of a snake eating its own tail; for in reading the Epitaphs, we are privileged to participate in an epistolary quarrel with Allen Tate over which letters to Mrs. Tate should be included in the volume before us. Did Mr. Tate indeed kick Mr. Dahlberg out of the house over this issue? It is regrettable that we do not have the full story. It is perhaps more regrettable that we have any part of the story at all. But it is nice to think of the book as containing at least part of its own prehistory, and to contemplate the possibility of its expanding in the other direction through infinitely widening ripples of recriminatory correspondence. Tristram Shandy was scarcely more entangled in the intricate act of explaining himself when he found he had to live two years of biographical time in order to cover six months of autobiographical time, and was thus outstripping his own pen by a proportion of four to one.
Review, 1734 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |