细节
McCULLERS, CARSON SMITH. Eight autograph letters signed, three typed letters signed, and six typed letters to Emma DeLong Mills in New York; written from Columbus, Georgia, and Charlotte, Fayetteville, and Greensboro, North Carolina, [12 May 1936-19 April 1940]. Together 17 letters, 64 pages, 8vo-4to, all typed letters double-spaced, all signed letters signed "Carson," the unsigned ones with "Carson" typed at end (a few with a holograph "C" over her typed "C"), most places and dates supplied in ink or pencil by the recipient, a few typed letters with holograph postscripts.
"THE MAIN PROTAGONIST -- THE SYMBOL OF THE WHOLE BOOK -- IS A DEAF MUTE"
A very early and rare series of letters, the first written at age 19 (four years before her first book, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published), to a close friend with whom Carson McCullers had studied creative writing at New York University. McCullers writes mainly of her home life in Georgia, her marriage and domestic life with Reeves McCullers in North Carolina, her friendship with Emma DeLong Mills, but also touches on her intellectual life (reading, music, world affairs, etc.). SEVEN OF THE LETTERS HAVE PORTIONS DEVOTED TO THE WRITING AND PUBLICATION OF "THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER."
[11 June 1936]: "...Haven't written anything much. Should be excessively discouraged, I suppose, but am not. There are so many hilarious things to do and so damn much to read. Have been reading George Soule, Pierre Loti, Rousseau and Descartes (outlandish mixture!)..." 28 November [1937]: "...Surprisingly enough, I have been working rather hard lately. A long story [eventually The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter] was started last month and in the making it has grown and become so complicated that it promises to be much longer than an ordinary tale. The first forty pages are finished in first draught? (draft?) and that's only the introduction. The main protagonist -- the symbol of the whole book -- is a deaf-mute. But while he may have his strong advantages as a symbol -- he's rather difficult to take care of because of his speechlessness. The thing's a sort of fantasie. How it will fare I don't know -- but in the meantime it's so fascinating to me that I'm in a continual froth of excitement..."
[early 1938]: "...About that Houghton Mifflin Fellowship business -- the circular got to me a couple of months ago and as I had the first part of the book [The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter] I'm working on finished I decided to try for it...Reeves and I worked day and night to get the Ms. typed in time and then sent the first copy to [Whit] Burnett and the second to Miss Bates with the letters...Miss Bates was the saving angel in the whole affair. As soon as she found out B. [Burnett] wasn't going to do anything (that was only a few days before the deadline) she got William March and someone from The Atlantic to be joint sponsers with her...Of course I haven't heard yet about the outcome. I have a very intimate friendly feeling for that thousand dollars [prize] -- but am far from having any real hopes about winning it..."
[ca. April 1939]: "...the book...is almost finished. I am doing the last of the rewriting. Soon I will be ready to copy the Ms. and send it off. What a relief it will be to finish you can well imagine. Until the work is done I am a prisoner...Two years on one particular piece of writing is a long time..." 6 January [1940]: "...My book is coming out sometime this spring [to be published by Houghton, Mifflin]. But everybody else seems to know a great deal more about the matter than I do. Today, of all things, I got a letter from Paramount (the movie people) asking if I had a carbon copy they could read to see if it could be filmed. (It couldn't be, possibly)...Am working on two new things at once [one of them her second novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye] and both of them fascinate me greatly. Have put in quite a load of work (and it is good, too, I think) this past week..." 19 February [1940]: "...No work today -- but I have been thinking of possible titles for the book [The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter]. How do these sound? [listing four titles] Fishers of Men. Comrades in the Night. All Men Seek. No Trophies of the Sun. The last is taken from a Hart Crane poem that I like very much..." [19 April 1940]: "...One thing after another -- and I have of course been finishing up this long tale. It is called now: 'Reflections in a Golden Eye.' But wait -- the new name for the novel is 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' and it will be out June 4..." (17)
"THE MAIN PROTAGONIST -- THE SYMBOL OF THE WHOLE BOOK -- IS A DEAF MUTE"
A very early and rare series of letters, the first written at age 19 (four years before her first book, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published), to a close friend with whom Carson McCullers had studied creative writing at New York University. McCullers writes mainly of her home life in Georgia, her marriage and domestic life with Reeves McCullers in North Carolina, her friendship with Emma DeLong Mills, but also touches on her intellectual life (reading, music, world affairs, etc.). SEVEN OF THE LETTERS HAVE PORTIONS DEVOTED TO THE WRITING AND PUBLICATION OF "THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER."
[11 June 1936]: "...Haven't written anything much. Should be excessively discouraged, I suppose, but am not. There are so many hilarious things to do and so damn much to read. Have been reading George Soule, Pierre Loti, Rousseau and Descartes (outlandish mixture!)..." 28 November [1937]: "...Surprisingly enough, I have been working rather hard lately. A long story [eventually The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter] was started last month and in the making it has grown and become so complicated that it promises to be much longer than an ordinary tale. The first forty pages are finished in first draught? (draft?) and that's only the introduction. The main protagonist -- the symbol of the whole book -- is a deaf-mute. But while he may have his strong advantages as a symbol -- he's rather difficult to take care of because of his speechlessness. The thing's a sort of fantasie. How it will fare I don't know -- but in the meantime it's so fascinating to me that I'm in a continual froth of excitement..."
[early 1938]: "...About that Houghton Mifflin Fellowship business -- the circular got to me a couple of months ago and as I had the first part of the book [The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter] I'm working on finished I decided to try for it...Reeves and I worked day and night to get the Ms. typed in time and then sent the first copy to [Whit] Burnett and the second to Miss Bates with the letters...Miss Bates was the saving angel in the whole affair. As soon as she found out B. [Burnett] wasn't going to do anything (that was only a few days before the deadline) she got William March and someone from The Atlantic to be joint sponsers with her...Of course I haven't heard yet about the outcome. I have a very intimate friendly feeling for that thousand dollars [prize] -- but am far from having any real hopes about winning it..."
[ca. April 1939]: "...the book...is almost finished. I am doing the last of the rewriting. Soon I will be ready to copy the Ms. and send it off. What a relief it will be to finish you can well imagine. Until the work is done I am a prisoner...Two years on one particular piece of writing is a long time..." 6 January [1940]: "...My book is coming out sometime this spring [to be published by Houghton, Mifflin]. But everybody else seems to know a great deal more about the matter than I do. Today, of all things, I got a letter from Paramount (the movie people) asking if I had a carbon copy they could read to see if it could be filmed. (It couldn't be, possibly)...Am working on two new things at once [one of them her second novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye] and both of them fascinate me greatly. Have put in quite a load of work (and it is good, too, I think) this past week..." 19 February [1940]: "...No work today -- but I have been thinking of possible titles for the book [The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter]. How do these sound? [listing four titles] Fishers of Men. Comrades in the Night. All Men Seek. No Trophies of the Sun. The last is taken from a Hart Crane poem that I like very much..." [19 April 1940]: "...One thing after another -- and I have of course been finishing up this long tale. It is called now: 'Reflections in a Golden Eye.' But wait -- the new name for the novel is 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' and it will be out June 4..." (17)