Please Continue: Literary Correspondence as Conversation

Navigation Menu+

In Summary

The letters in this exhibit span a century of English literature, from the 1880s to the 1980s, and each one was sent with the hope that it would bring a response in return, continuing the conversation. Because the fiction writers and poets who wrote this correspondence were all devoted to the craft of writing, their missives are works of art in themselves, albeit more personal and playful than their published volumes had the freedom to be. Each author’s epistles express personality not only through the chosen text, but also through paper color, handwriting, choice of writing utensil, and the many other physical details required to complete and mail a letter. The messages also hint at the lives on the receiving end of the correspondence, prompting us to imagine responses to the questions asked, praises doled out, and affections expressed.

Cross Creek

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ editor, Maxwell Perkins, who was also the editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, encouraged Rawlings to write about Florida, her beloved adopted home. His encouragement led her to write both Cross Creek, her memoir about making a home in the Florida backwoods, and The Yearling, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939.

Title	Cross Creek
Creator	Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Publisher	New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons
Date	1942
Source	Southern Civilization Collection