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Article: Mark Whalan, ed. The Letters of Jean Toomer, 1919-1924.(Book review)
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- September 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 African American Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Mark Whalan, ed. The Letters of Jean Toomer, 1919-1924. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2005. 296 pp. $38.00 cloth/$20.00 paper.
Correspondence, it has often been noted, forms the backbone of biography. Where else do we get such direct, and at times, shamefully, revealing evidence of a writer's narrative self-invention? In letters we seek to seduce, cajole, impress, flatter, manipulate--and we address our appeals very directly to a specific reader. When a writer's letters are collected, they are collated and historicized, checked for accuracy and thereby taken out of that original and intended context of friendship and intimacy; they are published for the broad ...