Selected Letters of Rebecca West. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2000

Bonnie Kime Scott, editor. Yale University Press. [pound]22.50. 497 pages. ISBN 0-300-07904-4. This is the first collection of Rebecca West's correspondence. During the novelist's long life (1892-1983) she wrote upwards of 10,000 letters. These describe her radical political views and her attitudes towards history, philosophy and cultural questions.

They also are biographical (she began depositing them -- after destroying some - at Yale during her lifetime) and describe her various sexual affairs (one lover, described as 'Lord Maxwell Beaverbrook' should of course be 'Lord Beaverbrook'), her illegitimate child and her troubled marriage. Radicals date very quickly and poor Rebecca West is taken to task by her editor for her attitudes towards foreigners, Jews and homosexuals. There are over 200 letters here, along with a helpful chronology, family tree and biographical sketches. As the editor writes, 'To read her letters in an informed way is to receive an education in the cul ture of the twentieth century'. Whether this education is uplifting or not is up to the individual reader to decide. (P.P.F.)