The Element of Lavishness

Colin Walters

In addition to a fascinating survey of the pair's work ... it is a volume of affectionately brilliant casual writing.
—Washington Times

Kerry Fried

Anecdote becomes art, and literature is proved the stuff of life in the letters of two of the 20th Century's finest-and underread-authors.
—Newsday

Merle Rubin

A wonderfully colorful sampling, intelligently arranged and annotated.
—Los Angeles Times

New York Times Book Review

Maxwell and Warner are articulate to a degree normal people need not bother even to aspire to. A feast.

New Yorker

Both writers excelled not only in arpeggios of description but in observations of the human heart so incisive that they constitute revelation.

Publishers Weekly

In 1936, the English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner published her first story in the New Yorker; shortly thereafter she was contacted by mail by a new entry-level editor named William Maxwell. Over the next 40 years, Warner published 153 stories in the magazine, and Maxwell became one of the best-known fiction arbiters of his time. They came to be close friends and correspondents, their exchange (totaling 1,300 letters) depending only partially on New Yorker business. The two carried on an almost impossibly civilized conversation: Warner, learned and eccentric, peppered her letters with obscure literary references and enclosed the odd gift (one year she sent Maxwell a spoon). Maxwell displayed an editor's refinement and a touching solicitude toward his British friend. Though at times they foundered in a sea of mutual admiration, the correspondents were at their best when exchanging literary opinions, details of their respective family lives or simply two ordinary people's distracted awareness of global events. The letters were often not dated, and putting them in sequence must have been a Herculean task for editor Steinman (who also edited Maxwell's correspondence with Frank O'Connor); in any case, the edition is not without flaws. Unable to print the entire correspondence because of its sheer volume, Steinman included some complete letters and excerpts of others, without noting his omissions or explaining his choices; there is no framing material other than a brief introduction, and scarcely any notes contextualizing the letters. Yet despite these editorial oversights, readers who admire Warner and Maxwell for their own beautifully expressed selves will find much to enjoy in this tribute to the leisurely intimacies of a bygone era. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

It has been said that everything written is either poetry or prose. The 40 years of letters between Warner and Maxwell suggest that in the care of experts the written word could simultaneously be both. Warner--poet, novelist, and short story writer--first came to Maxwell's attention when he read her narrative poem "Opus 7." It was later--as a copywriter, and before his reign as the renowned editor of The New Yorker (the magazine published 153 of Warner's short stories)--that they began their remarkable correspondence. Although both were involved in other relationships (Maxwell married in 1945, and Warner had a 40-year lesbian relationship with poet Valentine Ackland), it is clear that they shared a platonic love. The letters are never mere reports but are passionate, lively, provocative, fun, and serious, too. The subject matter is wide-ranging: money, health, food, rejections, books and book reviews, cats and dogs, children, and, of course, writing. Regardless of age or gender, readers will love the Warner-Maxwell letters; expect the best of goosebumps. In this admirable collection, editor Steinman (English, Nassau Community Coll.) includes entire letters as well as excerpts from more than 500 letters. Recommended for all libraries.--Robert L. Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

These two marvelously talented writers corresponded regularly and frequently about events great and small: the war in Spain, music lessons for Maxwell's children, writers, artists, gardens and travel. Steinman (English, Nassau Community College, New York) provides a short introduction to this very readable collection, one which will appeal to anyone who loves literature, and perhaps most to fans of where Maxwell was an editor, and to which Warner contributed short stories, both for the four decades covered here. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Miranda Seymour

Sensibly, [Steinman] has pruned their correspondence to show only its best . . . The letters are usually detailed enough to keep the reader abreast of the events that they reflect and . . . convert into the stuff of fiction.
—New York Times Book Review