Slideshow: Meet the Editors
The American Reader is a brand new literary journal, and runs on enthusiasm, passion, and most of all, your support. So thank you! And welcome to our home.
Staff
22 November (1935): Sherwood Anderson to Miriam Philips
“The idea I did try to express is perhaps sound enough, that the protection we must always seek is that inner laughter…that is to say, I presume, to try to take it also as a part of the total picture, this damn fascinating thing…life.”
21 November (1831): Alexander Pushkin to F. N. Glinka
Below, Pushkin reaches out to fellow poet F. N. Glinka, regarding the latter’s failure to take part in a “poetic memorial feast” for Anton Delvig, a close friend of Pushkin’s and publisher of the journal Northern Flowers. Glinka had reason to … Continued
20 November (1950): Edmund Wilson to John Lester
In the letter below, Edmund Wilson writes to John Lester, his former professor, thanking him for his instruction in “the architectonics of prose,” and criticizing the sloppiness of “a good deal of American writing.” November 20, 1950, Cape Cod Dear … Continued
19 November (1964): Alfred Hitchcock to Vladimir Nabokov
Alfred Hitchcock and Vladimir Nabokov were mutual admirers; for a brief time, they maintained a correspondence, in which they batted around the idea of collaborating on a film. Below, Hitchcock writes to Nabokov, offering two ideas for potential screenplays. “Screenplay … Continued
16, 17 & 18 November (1936): Maxwell Perkins to Thomas Wolfe
On November 13th, 1936, Thomas Wolfe wrote an angry, hurt, agonized-over dispatch to Maxwell Perkins, in which the novelist effectively severed ties with his longtime editor and mentor—whom he accused of “[trying] to exert, at no expense to oneself, such … Continued
15 November (1974): Charles Bukowski to The L.A. Free Press
Below, Charles Bukowski writes to the editors of The L.A. Free Press, defending a story he had published in their pages two weeks prior. The story—”a take-off on an interview with an established female poet in a recent issue of … Continued
14 November (1973): Patrick White to Cynthia Nolan
Below, Patrick White recounts for friend and fellow novelist Cynthia Nolan a strange, lingering memory from his youth, which was startled awake by a visit back to Brown’s River, where White once spent the Summer as a child. TO CYNTHIA NOLAN … Continued
13 November (1936): Thomas Wolfe to Maxwell E. Perkins, Charles Scribner III
In November of 1936, Thomas Wolfe made the momentous decision to break with Scribner’s, as well as his longtime mentor and editor, Max Perkins. Wolfe’s motives remain, to this day, unclear: his decision has been attributed alternately to Wolfe’s … Continued
12 November (1951): Raymond Chandler to Juanita Messick
Below, Raymond Chandler writes to his close personal secretary, Juanita Messick, lamenting the improper use of present participles and the decline of the American mind. The exchange was occasioned by a newspaper column entitled “Take My Word”, in which the … Continued