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William Goyen: Selected Letters from a Writer's Life
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Average Rating:  out of 1 Reviews
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Price: $34.95
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Sale: $7.66
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Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780292727731
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: William Goyen
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Publisher: University of Texas Press
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Edition: 1st
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Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
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Publication Date: 1994
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Reading Level: 471
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Description: Proclaimed "one of the great American writers of short fiction" by the New York Times Book Review, William Goyen (1915-1983) had a quintessentially American literary career, in which national recognition came only after years of struggle to find his authentic voice, his audience, and an artistic milieu in which to create. These letters, which span the years 1937 to 1983, offer a compelling testament to what it means to be a writer in America. A prolific correspondent, Goyen wrote regularly to friends, family, editors, and other writers. Among the letters selected here are those to such major literary figures as W. H. Auden, Archibald MacLeish, Joyce Carol Oates, William Inge, Elia Kazan, Elizabeth Spencer, and Katherine Anne Porter. These letters constitute a virtual autobiography, as well as a fascinating introduction to Goyen's work. They add an important chapter to the study of American and Texas literature of the twentieth century.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: One of the best sources to date about the life/work of Goyen |
Date: 1998-08-22 |
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Details: Through the many letters reprinted in this volume, Robert Phillips allows us a glimpse into the world of a writer, who for most of his career suffered the indignity of indifference and the bitterness of rejection; only within the past two decades has Goyen's work received much critical attention. The book is divided into 7 sections, beginning with 1932, when Goyen recieved his B.A. in Literature from Rice Institute, until 1983, when the author died of lymphoma. Each section contains a chronology of letters that at first glance reads like a travelogue, a reflection of Goyen's inability to reconcile with the idea of place. Many of the pages reveal how he would settle somewhere new, begin to write, start to feel hemmed in, and move to another destination. Still, even when in California or New York, he never lost touch with those he most cared for, and he always considered Texas his home. The lyricism that echoes throughout his fiction and poetry is also heard amidst his letters. There are passionate notes to Katherine Anne Porter, whith whom he reportedly had a two-year relationship, comments to novelist Daniel Stern made during the time that Goyen was his editor at McGraw-Hill, as well as evidence of both the creative euphoria and crippling depression that he experienced throughout his life. Due to an estrangement over the publication of his masterpiece, The House of Breath (1950), there is not much correspondence with family members, but perhaps that is just as well since Phillips' aim was to focus on "letters about his writing, the writing of others, and art and literature in general " (xii) . The result then, is an autobiographical picture never before seen within the modest amount of Goyen scholarship that currently exists. We learn of an early military experience that almost cost him his sanity, his resentment at being called a Southern writer, and the writers he considered most influential, including Eliot, Pound, Frost, Welty, Porter, and Flaubert. Robert Phillips has done an amazing job in editing this epistolary volume. He offers us Wiliiam Goyen as friend, lover, and writer, whose raw, human vision is made clearer through his own words. This is an indispensable source for anyone wishing to learn more about a man whose importance to the canon of modern American literature has yet to be realized. |
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