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The close friendship between Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, and The Buccaneers) and Louis Bromfield (Early Autumn, The Farm, and The Rains Came) evolved toward the end of Wharton's long and distinguished life and during the height of Bromfield's career. Despite the disparity in their ages and backgrounds-he was thirty-four years her junior and a Jeffersonian democrat from the Midwest, she an aristocratic Old New Yorker with a penchant for Hamiltonian economics-the bond between them, described by Bromfield was "a close bond, as close in many senses as I have ever known." During the period of their correspondence (1931-1937), Wharton divided her time between the Pavillon Colombe, an eighteenth-century house north of Paris, and Sainte Claire du Vieux Château, near Hyères in the south of France. Bromfield lived not far from the Pavillon Colombe, in Senlis, at the Presbytère de St. Étienne. The gardens of these estates and the fervor they inspired in these two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors began a relationship that would endure until Wharton's death in 1937. At the heart of these letters is Wharton and Bromfield's devotion to the earth and to horticultural pursuits, a devotion immediately recognizable to all who share the passion of gardening. But these letters speak of so much more. The two friends wrote of the social-political milieu of America and France during the 1930s, gossiped about the literary worlds in which they lived, discussed the publishing climate of the Depression era, and shared their kindred love of travel and literature. Consisting of thirty-two letters, one postcard, and a note from Wharton's secretary to Bromfield's wife, their correspondence is presented here with meticulous annotation by Daniel Bratton to give an insight into the private worlds of these two literary magnates.
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reviewed Yrs, Ever Affly: The Correspondence of Edith Wharton and Louis Bromfield on October 20, 2017
Yrs, Ever Affly: The Correspondence of Edith Wharton and Louis Bromfield
Having just finished Colm TóibÃn's novel about James, The Master, I determined to read some of James' work that I hadn't read before. So I was browsing at Powell's, and came across this little volume. I admit to being attracted by its physical beauty -- a small paperback with a heavy textured blue outer jacket, very simple typography, and a picture of Palazzo Ducale I by Roger de Montebello on a smooth paper.
Palazzo Barbaro was in James' day (and still was at the time of the publication of this book in 1997) the home of the expatriate American family, the Curtises, who were great patrons of the arts. They were painted by Sargent, and in their home Browning read his poems, and James finished writing The Aspern Papers.
These letters are primarily written by James but there are also some written by members of the Curtis family. James writes to the Curtis', to Isabella Steward Gardner, to Constance Woolson (and we see, in a later letter, the impact of her suicide on James and his view of Venice). The word "from" in the title is a bit misleading, as many are written from other parts of Italy, and a few from England and Switzerland. But to the extent that the Palazzo was a place in the heart, then the title is accurate.
The contrast between James' letters and the Curtis letters is revealing. The latter are pretty much the "today we did this" and "so-and-so's been to visit" type, while James' are full of gorgeous images and his usual insightful observations.
In addition to a foreword by Leon Edel (James' biographer), there is an introduction by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, who has written extensively about the expatriate colony in Venice. There are end notes after each letter, but I do wish there had been more, as there are intriguing references in the letters to unexplained events (what did happen with Pen Browning's marriage? and what was Mrs. Ralph Curtis' "situation"?).
This lovely little volume provides a delightful glimpse into James' Italian world.
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