 The Letters of Greats: From Ernest Hemingway to Georgia O’Keeffe, a Glimpse of Famous Correspondence
Lessons in love via post, or what Hemingway’s soft side has to do with Maurice Sendak’s early genius.
What is it about letters that speaks to us so powerfully, intrigues us so seductively? Letters in general have a way of revealing as much about the subject matter as they do about the author and the recipient, but when they offer slivers of the lives, loves, and longings of those we hold in high regard, they hold a whole different kind of appeal. Today, we turn to five chronicles of famous correspondence that shed new light on the hearts and minds of cultural icons.
DEAR GENIUS
As a hopeless lover of children’s books, I have tremendous respect and infinite gratitude for Ursula Nordstrom (1910-1988), who headed Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973 and who is often considered the single most influential and visionary champion of innovation in children’s book publishing in the past century, reining in a new era of children’s literature free from the approval shackles of morality tales and, instead, full of room for children’s emotions and imaginations to roam. Known for trusting her intuition above all else, she edited — and, some would say, co-envisioned — such timeless classics as Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon (1947), E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1951), Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are (1963), and Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree (1964), among many others.
In Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom, Leonard Marcus opens up the HarperCollins archives to reveal Nordstrom’s remarkable character, with its rare blend of razor-sharp intellect and boundless creativity, through her correspondence. These letters — witty, thought-provoking, hopelessly entertaining, unapologetically brilliant — not only offer a priceless time-capsule of the collaborative work behind such iconic books, but they also bespeak Nordstrom’s incredible work ethic that appears at once superhuman and underpinned by profound humanity.
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Lecturas y Libros 
