Dearest Wilding: A Memoir: With Love Letters from Theodore Dreiser

Eastman, nee Szekely, met Theodore Dreiser when she attended one of his New York soirees with her mother, a Hungarian emigre and journalist. Although he was 58 and she a 16-year-old schoolgirl, they became lovers within a year. Much of this detailed, gossipy memoir deals with their affair, which the two tried to keep secret from Dreiser's wife and Yvette's family. According to her account, Dreiser pressured her into a sexual relationship and was intensely jealous of her friends, but Eastman remembers their years together (1929-39) with fondness and credits Dreiser with giving her emotional support as well as a perspective on the events of her childhood. Dreiser's letters to her, included here, document his feelings for her as well as his political and literary concerns. During this time she also had an affair with writer Max Eastman, whom she married. Photos. (July)