Selected Letters of Rebecca West Author:Rebecca West Dame West was a prolific correspondent, in the course of which she set down her frequently scathing assessments of the literary movements, political events and prominent figures of her day. The range of topics addressed in the letters is astounding: literary figures (including Shaw, Wells, Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Wo... more »olf, D.H. Lawrence - as well as lesser known women writers, including Emma Goldman and Dorothy Thompson), historical events (both world wars, America in the Roaring Twenties, cold war espionage and lynching trials) and political movements (Fabian socialism, woman suffrage, communism, fascism and apartheid). West emerges from all of this as an extremely witty and brilliant commentator - but also infuriatingly arrogant, distrustful and, on occasions, racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic. As Professor Scott rightly states in her introduction to the volume, "to read [West's] letters in an informed way is to receive an education in the culture of the twentieth century."« less