Volume 24, Number 17 · October 27, 1977
Being Strong: Edmund Wilson's Letters
By Harry Levin
Letters on Literature and Politics: 1912-1972
by Edmund Wilson, edited by Elena Wilson, introduction by Daniel Aaron, foreword by Leon Edel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 768 pp., $20.00
The blurb on the jacket that characterizes the author as 'this era's greeatest man of letters' echoes an assumption which will not be challenged here. But what does that really mean? Most likely, an all-round competence in the various genres of literature. However, if he had been more successful than he was as a novelist, a dramatist, or a poet, he might have been saluted first under one of those categories. (On some occasions he wistfully declared that Memoirs of Hecate County was his best book, but any writer may be forgiven for viewing his latest or least appreciated effort as his masterpiece.) Indeed his versatility was such that he once planned a choreography for the Swedish Ballet which would have starred Charlie Chaplin. Voltaire was for many years regarded as a greater playwright than Racine; Johnson wrote a mildly interesting novel and a terrible play; both of them achieved their central positions as 'men of letters.' Edmund Wilson has been their worthiest successor in our time.
Review, 3667 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. |