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The novels of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ellen Glasgow ushered the South into the modern era, rejecting the typically romanticized approach for a cunningly observed realism. Glasgow’s originality of mind and abiding fascination with her native South are in abundant display in this new selection of her correspondence with women. Covering more than sixty years, Perfect Companionship collects some 250 letters to and from Glasgow, many published here for the first time. The correspondents include Glasgow’s family members, as well as prominent Richmonders. Also included are letters to and from authors such as Radclyffe Hall, Margaret Mitchell, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, artists Malvina Hoffman and Clare Leighton, publishing figures Blanche Knopf and Irita Van Doren, and spouses of literary and academic figures such as Eleanor Brooks, wife of Van Wyck Brooks, and Bessie Zaban Jones, wife of Howard Mumford Jones. The letters are set in their proper context by a wealth of useful features, including a substantial introduction, a complete chronology of Glasgow’s life, a comprehensive calendar listing all of her known correspondence with women, and a biographical register identifying all correspondents and persons mentioned in the letters. The result is a collection valuable not only to Glasgow scholars but also to any reader drawn to the South and the great contribution made by women to its literature and culture. Pamela R. Matthews, Associate Professor and Associate Head of English at Texas A&M University, is the author of Ellen Glasgow and a Woman’s Traditions (Virginia). |
The University of
Virginia Press