I reviewed the 1,800+ page third volume [of letters] for the Washington Post here, and mentioned the same. Lewis wrote everyone, including T.S. Eliot, the sci-fi maestro Arthur C. Clarke, and the American writer Robert Penn Warren. “Other letters were from cranks, whiners and down-and-out charity cases; he answered them all,” I wrote.
And to think I have trouble keeping up with my email. This is a wonderful piece. What Cynthia says, by the way, about Lewis's verse, is quite true. No matter how good a writer you may be, it is important to know what you, peculiarly, can write. In Lewis's case, that was not verse.
You're so right.
ReplyDeleteI have Hemingway's collected poems. It's a small book. I wrote better poems when I was a teenager: Hem's poems are just awful! LOL I, on the other hand, have absolutely NO ability to write fiction.