The Correspondence of Shelby Foote & Walker Percy

By Shelby Foote

Book Overview

In the late 1940s comic moralist Walker Percy and novelist Shelby Foote, friends since their teenage years, began a correspondence which would last until Percy's death in 1990. The letters trace their lives from their early careers, when they were struggling fiercely and openly with their ambitions, artistic doubts and personal problems. They discuss such serious matters as the death of Foote's mother and Percy's battle with cancer, but their letters are also full of humour, good-natured ribbing and self mockery.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393040313
• ISBN13: 9780393040319
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A great biography in letters.

This has to be one of the most engaging and moving book of letters from any time. A lifelong friendship is chronicled between these two virtuoso writers, rather different in many ways yet bound by the love of writing. I had already read everything by Percy, but this book made me read everything by Foote. His novels are superb.

Essential reading for Percy or Foote fans

It is a rare treasure to find a book like this. "Correspondence" gives insight to the artistry, friendship, and psychology of two gifted writers/curmudgeons.A little advice to the prospective reader. Forgive Shelby Foote his apparent crankiness, which may be the most notable feature of this book. As other reviews note, Percy is absent through much of the volume. Foote's tone, already tinged with youthful didacticism, is transformed into a soliloquy which is boastful and (at times) rude.Appearances may be misleading, however. While on the surface egotistical, Foote's often incisive letters betray far more complex motives. He searches for true conversation, for a way to gauge his art (his central pursuit). Percy may come across as aloof, or even vague, but this may be due to the hidden lifelong friendship behind these letters.A wonderful read

Pity poor Shelby Foote

Pity Shelby Foote. Most people know his as a writer of books on the Civil War. But when you read this book of letters you see that what thrilled him most was reading great literature.The reader of this book of letters between two friends will be thrilled by talk of literature. Foote is like Herr Settembrini of Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain". He is so overwhelmed by humantistic learning that he finds he must educate his friend and mentor Hans Castrop, in this case Walker Percy.It is ironic that the prodigy in this case, Walker Percy, soon eclipses the mentor. Walker Percy agonizes in his early letters about his inability to have his novels published while Foote publishes his books in rapid succession. But today Percy's "Moviegoer" and other books are still read while only Foote's "Shiloh" is really still popular. It seems Foote is stuck with Civil War fame have written his long classic on the war.Reading Foote's letters is where I discovered Flanney O'Connor. Walker Percy and Shelby Foote spoke highly of her here. They also talk about the important of reading Marcel Proust, Faulkner, and a dozen others. Toward the end Foote begins to spew forth on the merits of reading the Greek classics. It is his description of these books and their authors that adds to one's own literary education.The first part of the book is a little annoying because Shelby Foote threw away the letters that Walker Percy sent to him for the first many years of their correspondence. So you keep reading Shelby Foote but are not privvy to what Walker Percy as to say.

Like eavsedropping on a fabulous conversation

I don't know when I have enjoyed a book of letters so much. Usually such things represent only a given writer's letters to a variety of people. This volume is a correspondence between two friends that covers five decades and in it one is able to see them grow, change and take delight in a constant verbal duel that must have been going on from the time they first met as teenagers. For two decades this 'conversation' is mostly a monologue because Foote didn't start saving Percy's letters until the 70's, but it is often easy to imagine Percy's letters from Foote's responses - his answering specific questions and arguing against certain statements. It is so much fun to see Foote trying for 50 years to get Percy to read Proust, and Percy simply ignoring the injunctions. This is just one of the ongoing literary 'wars' that are fought between these two significant writers who, while being diametrically different in style and theme, were the closest of friends from the age of 14. I found that once started, I couldn't stop reading. From the first chatty letter from Foote in which he proposes his desire to be a great novelist to the last 'letter' - a message read at Percy's memorial service - the book has the forward momentum of a good novel, the intellectual give and take of a Platonic dialogue and the warmth and humor that only good friends can bring to lifelong disagreements. I think this is a great book and, for all who think that literature is important, a wonderful window into the thinking of two fine minds.

Witty and informative profile of two good writers

Foote and Percy are masters of the English language. This book provides an enjoyable and witty look at a dying lit form, letter writing.( The phone, e-mail and fax are killing it) The two southern writers were friends from boyhood in the thirties to Percy's death in1990. The letters give us two insights to that slice of American history.

Great read

Hellaciously great read. Answers the query 'what happens if two great writers correspond in total honesty'?