Windows on Modernism: Selected Letters of Dorothy Richardson

Richardson (1873-1957), an English author who penned a 13-volume autobiographical novel (Pilgramage), was also a prolific correspondent. The letters collected here by the late Fromm (Dorothy Richardson: A Biography), with accompanying biographical essays, were written from 1901 to 1952 and touch on the major events of Richardson's life and work. Frequently compared to Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and Marcel Proust, Richardson experimented with stream of consciousness from a woman's point of view. Letters written to other authors--such as H.G. Wells (with whom Richardson had a brief affair), Owen Wadsworth and John Cowper Powys--chart the progress of her writing. Details of Richardson's happy marriage to artist Alan Odle as well as her emotional breakdown and her life during WWII are documented in chatty, good-humored letters to friends. This rich collection will be of greatest interest to literary historians. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)