Small archive of letters to writer and critic Gilbert Seldes.
Near Fine.
March 6, 1929 - November 30, 1986. From Wilson to Seldes: four TLS, six ALS, three postcards, four telegrams, one page of typed transcriptions (from three books Wilson inscribed to Seldes), one article, plus one TLS to Seldes' daughter Marian. From Seldes to Wilson: two TLS copies, and two handwritten notes about letters received. 24 items in all (32 pages.) A few of the earlier letters and telegrams are very good with some toning, a few scattered stains and tears; the rest of the material is near fine. This archive consists mostly of letters from Edmund Wilson (1895 - 1972) to Gilbert Seldes (1893 - 1970), with a few copies of letters Seldes sent to Wilson in response. Both men were writers and critics: Wilson was a Princeton classmate of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and in addition to writing many books of his own, he edited two of Fitzgerald's works posthumously. Seldes was a drama critic who adapted works for Broadway, and wrote for magazines including The Dial, Vanity Fair, and The Saturday Evening Post. He graduated from Harvard and founded the School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Of the letters, postcards, telegrams, and miscellaneous material, most discuss literary matters, with some of the content of a personal nature. All of the letters are in English, with a few that are partly in Hebrew. One letter dated March 6, 1929 was written after Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown after the death of his second wife. To help deal with the crisis, which was also precipitated by the critical failure of three of his books, he entered The Sanitarium and Clinic in Clifton Springs, New York, and this letter is written on that letterhead. Another item of special interest is a TLS copy from Seldes to Wilson, that attempts to clear up a rumor: that The Dial did not, as it was reported in The New York Times Book Review, promise T. S. Eliot the Dial Award in order to publish The Waste Land. Most of the letters detail books or articles the men were working on, plus their many friends and colleagues in common, including E. E. Cummings, Carl Van Doren, Upton Sinclair, Gorham Munson, Arthur Godfrey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Charlie Chaplin, Al Capp, Nichols and May, Scofield Thayer, Lewis Mumford, T. S. Eliot, Sherwood Anderson, Alyse Gregory, Marianne Moore, Leo Rosten, and Kenneth Burke. Three of the telegrams were sent in jest, purporting to be from T. S. Eliot, Marion Bloom (H. L. Mencken's lover), and Krazy & Ignatz (comic strip characters). Wilson and Seldes remained friends until Seldes died in 1970, one day after the death of John Dos Passos, who was a close friend of both men. A letter dated October 10, 1970, written to Marian Seldes, the actress and daughter of Gilbert, expresses sympathy for Gilbert's recent death.
Item #EDW002
Price: $2,500.00
