The Letters of Edith Wharton

Although many of the lines contained in these letters have been well publicized for years, never before have Wharton's private and business correspondences been so collectively accessible. Interesting enough for their biographic aspects, the letters are also wonderful companion pieces to Wharton's books, particularly A BACKWARD GLANCE, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH.

This book contains about 400 of Wharton's letters, out of about 4,000 extant. It is a careful selection, including "major" letters that are often quoted, and for the first time (other than in a small university publication), a substantial portion of her correspondence with Morton Fullerton, with whom she had an affair while in her mid-40s. That particular correspondence did not surface until the 1980s, and added an entirely new perspective on Wharton's life and work. Unfortunately, nearly all of her correspondence with two of her greatest friends, Henry James and Walter Berry, did not survive, and the absence is felt. I applaud the editors (one of whom wrote a Pulitzer prize winning bio of Wharton) for a selection that is very readable and never trite or repetitive (a big problem when dealing with letters in their entirety). Reading the letters after having read the bio, I found they added to my understanding of Wharton as a person and a writer.