John Saumarez Smith and Jonathan Kooperstein The Acceptance of Absurdity : Anthony Powell – Robert Vanderbilt Letters 1952-1963

*** LAST FEW – WIGIG ***

In February 1952 the proprietor of the leading Anglophile bookshop in New York, Robert Vanderbilt Jr, wrote to Anthony Powell suggesting that he should reprint one, possibly two, of Powell’s pre-war novels. This led to an animated exchange of letters about the production and sale of Two Novels: Venusberg and Agents and Patients and a longstanding friendship. When Powell became Literary Editor of Punch the correspondence took on a new life as both men helped each other find books to review or sell. The result is a literary kaleidoscope with London and New York equally represented. It also reminds a later generation of the lasting rewards of letter writing.