Years of research for a life of North Carolina garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) led me many places, but none more inviting than my trips to Duke’s Special Collections Library, where I found hundreds of letters in the Ann Preston Bridgers Papers that brought Lawrence to life as no other materials, including interviews with family and friends who had known her. As I went through box after box of letters from Elizabeth to Ann (all beautifully catalogued by Janie Morris), I discovered a collection that not only informed the biography I wrote about Lawrence (No One Gardens Alone) but gave vivid testament to the importance of women’s friendships. (Bridgers, a successful playwright and a founder of the Raleigh Little Theatre, was teaching young Elizabeth how to write and how to live, all vividly revealed in the letters.) This month John F. Blair, Publisher, released my edited collection, Becoming Elizabeth Lawrence: Discovered Letters of a Southern Gardener. Among the books I have been privileged to write or edit, it is my favorite because of the charm and intelligence of a private life.These letters from Elizabeth to Ann are lively with gossip, anecdote, reflection, regret, aspiration, and love—the love of friends, the love of gardens, and the love of literature. I still regard it as a miracle that they were not destroyed after Ann’s death in 1967 but ended up in the Bridgers Papers. I hope that you will read them and enjoy them as much as I did.
Love this new feature! it's great to see how our work (collecting, organizing and preserving) comes to life in researcher's hands. It also highlights the importance of primary research materials. Great idea and thanks for sharing Ms. Wilson.
ReplyDeleteThis new book I pre-ordered arrived promptly and I read it through at the earliest possible moment(s). The degree of self-disclosure by the author(s) of the letters moved me deeply. Although I had read the earlier works of Emily Herring Wilson, I found these writings gave me a totally different dimension, very powerful. I learned the difference between "correspondence" (writing back and forth) and "letters" (much as my own writing) where a reply is never expected and frequently the non-expectation is complied with!
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