Description
Book SynopsisOne of the Lost Generation modernists who gathered in 1920s Paris, Kay Boyle published more than forty books, including fifteen novels, eleven collections of short fiction, eight volumes of poetry, three children's books, and various essays and translations. Yet her achievement can be even better appreciated through her letters to the literary and cultural titans of her time. Kay Boyle shared the first issue of This Quarter with Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway, expressed her struggles with poetry to William Carlos Williams and voiced warm admiration to Katherine Anne Porter, fled WWII France with Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim, socialized with the likes of James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, and Samuel Beckett, and went to jail with Joan Baez. The letters in this first-of-its-kind collection, authorized by Boyle herself, bear witness to a transformative era illuminated by genius and darkened by Nazism and the Red Scare. Yet they also serve as milestones on the journey of a woman who po
Trade ReviewHonorable Mention, Morton N. Cohen Award, Modern Language Association (MLA), 2017.
"As a teacher, Kay Boyle started the career of countless writers, but as a citizen with a will and a conscience, she saved countless lives, and showed all of us the path to follow. Sandra Spanier reminds us that Kay Boyle's words might be even more relevant in our current century. And, who better to learn from than a poet and storyteller rather than a 24-hour news channel pundit and spin doctor?"
--Shawn Wong, author of
American Knees "
Kay Boyle: A Twentieth Century Life in Letters is an achievement to celebrate."--
Resources for American Literary Study"More than a collection of letters by Kay Boyle, this volume functions as a cultural history. . . . Boyle's talent as a letter writer and Spanier's skill as an editor guarantee that this volume with be of enduring value. Highly recommended."--
Choice "Boyle's letters, often relayed in breathless and passionate prose, make clear that for her, as Spanier argues, there were 'no boundary lines between the public and the private, the person and the political, between art and life.'"--
Times Literary Supplement
