The Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1923-1925 was finally published 23 years late

Four years ago while writing “Three’s company: T.S. Eliot, Vivienne Eliot, and Bertrand Russell”, I wrote, “My sources of reading include The Letters of T.S. Eliot (Volume I: 1898 – 1922—see photo, Volume II is somehow not available at Waynesburg University or Carnegie’s Library), Virginia Woolf’s letters and diaries, . . . ”  The Volume I was published by T.S. Eliot’s widow (second wife), Valerie Eliot, in 1988, and she hope to “publish the second part next year.”  Little did I know that “next year” never came until now.

There is an almost one-page Book review at Wall Street Journal on September 17-18 (see photo below), and a lengthy (7 or 8 pages) book review (“Practical Cat: How Eliot became Eliot”) in the September 19 issue of The New Yorker.

I was critical of T.S. Eliot in his treating his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood.  Carole Seymour’s The Painted Shadow: a life of Vivienne Eliot is more sympathetic to Vivienne’s ordeal, so am I.  The New Yorker article says Vivienne was “an unhealthy, demanding, and unstable woman.”  This is why I very much wanted to read T.S. Eliot’s letters to see the story from his perspective to get a more balanced view.

To me letter writing is an important genre in literature.  I may gain more insight into the author’s life and heart by reading the letters.  I know Virginia Woolf gossiped with style in her letters and diary.  Emily Dickinson’s letters show her prose is as original and innovative as her verses; unfortunately only a fraction of her letters survived.

Would the emails and posts in a blog evolve into a genre of literature one of these days?