Polished and Robust

Wyndham Lewis wrote gracefully at all times, a graceful, rich, straightforward English English, always precise, never pretentious. It gilds even these letters, to which he frankly didn’t give a thought. “I never write a letter. So I have twice as many books to my credit as anybody else, that is all,” he affirmed in 1938—yet here are 519 specimens, chosen, we are told by his devoted editor, Mr. Rose, from a total of three or four times that number. They are not compositions, however, but ordinary, necessary, personal communications or belligerent letters contributed to controversies in the press. Nevertheless, their style is consistently admirable; an interesting example of style operating in a total vacuum, with nothing whatever of any interest to convey—-for what do you and I care about the details of Lewis’ minor illnesses, of petty literary quarrels, or complaints of poverty and ill treatment? Nothing at all. And why should we? But invariably the language that clothes these commonplace observations reveals a personality both polished and robust.

The Letters of Wyndham Lewis, edited by W. K. Rose. New Directions, $8.50

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Farley Clinton

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Wyndham Lewis wrote gracefully at all times, a graceful, rich, straightforward English English, always precise, never pretentious. It gilds even these letters, to which he frankly didn’t give a thought. “I never write a letter. So I have twice as many books to my credit as anybody else, that is all,” he affirmed in 1938—yet here are 519 specimens, chosen, we are told by his devoted editor, Mr. Rose, from a total of three or four times that number. They are not compositions, however, but ordinary, necessary, personal communications or belligerent letters contributed to controversies in the press. Nevertheless, their style is consistently admirable; an interesting example of style operating in a total vacuum, with nothing whatever of any interest to convey—-for what do you and I care about the details of Lewis’ minor illnesses, of petty literary quarrels, or complaints of poverty and ill treatment? Nothing at all. And why should we? But invariably the language that clothes these commonplace observations reveals a personality both polished and robust.

The Letters of Wyndham Lewis, edited by W. K. Rose. New Directions, $8.50