细节
FAULKNER, WILLIAM. Typed letter signed ("William Faulkner") TO RICHARD WRIGHT, "Tuesday" n.p., n.d. [Hollywood, probably 11 September 1945]. 1 page, 4to, single-spaced, verso professionally backed with tissue paper, several marginal tears and other paper flaws skilfully repaired (a small one affecting a letter in Faulkner's signature), enclosed in mylar protective envelope; half morocco slipcase.
A MAJOR LITERARY LETTER: FAULKNER TO WRIGHT ON "NATIVE SON" AND "BLACK BOY"
Faulkner had been in Hollywood working on screenplays for Warner Brothers since June; he was to return to Oxford, Miss., in early October. He writes: "I have just read BLACK BOY [Wright's autobiographical account of his growing up, published in April 1945]. It needed to be said, and you said it well. Though I am afraid (I am speaking now from the point of view of one who believes that the man who wrote NATIVE SON is potentially an artist) it will accomplish little of what it should accomplish, since only they will be moved and grieved by it who already know and grieve over this situation. You said it well, as well as it could have been said in this form. Because I think you said it much better in Native Son [Wright's 1940 novel], I hope you will keep on saying it, but I hope you will say it as an artist, as in Native Son. I think you will agree that the good lasting stuff comes out of one individual's imagination and sensitivity to and comprehension of the suffering of Everyman, Anyman, not out of the memory of his own grief.
"A friend of yours lives in my town, Joe Brown [Wright was also a Mississippian]. He has shown me his verses. I have (I hope) helped him to learn what you learned yourself: that to feel and believe is not enough to write from..." Published in Selected Letters, ed. Joseph Blotner, p. 201. See also Blotner, Faulkner: a Biography (New York, 1974), II, pp. 1190-91, for a discussion of the letter.
A MAJOR LITERARY LETTER: FAULKNER TO WRIGHT ON "NATIVE SON" AND "BLACK BOY"
Faulkner had been in Hollywood working on screenplays for Warner Brothers since June; he was to return to Oxford, Miss., in early October. He writes: "I have just read BLACK BOY [Wright's autobiographical account of his growing up, published in April 1945]. It needed to be said, and you said it well. Though I am afraid (I am speaking now from the point of view of one who believes that the man who wrote NATIVE SON is potentially an artist) it will accomplish little of what it should accomplish, since only they will be moved and grieved by it who already know and grieve over this situation. You said it well, as well as it could have been said in this form. Because I think you said it much better in Native Son [Wright's 1940 novel], I hope you will keep on saying it, but I hope you will say it as an artist, as in Native Son. I think you will agree that the good lasting stuff comes out of one individual's imagination and sensitivity to and comprehension of the suffering of Everyman, Anyman, not out of the memory of his own grief.
"A friend of yours lives in my town, Joe Brown [Wright was also a Mississippian]. He has shown me his verses. I have (I hope) helped him to learn what you learned yourself: that to feel and believe is not enough to write from..." Published in Selected Letters, ed. Joseph Blotner, p. 201. See also Blotner, Faulkner: a Biography (New York, 1974), II, pp. 1190-91, for a discussion of the letter.