Powell–Vanderbilt Letters

The Acceptance of Absurdity
Anthony Powell – Robert Vanderbilt Letters 1952-1963

Edited by John Saumarez Smith & Jonathan Kooperstein
Paperback; 2011

AP Society Members’ Price: UK £17, Overseas £19.50
Non-Members Price: £19.50 + p&p at cost

We are pleased to have acquired a supply of the following which has just been published …In February 1952 the proprietor of the leading Anglophile bookshop in New York, Robert Vanderbilt Jr, wrote to Anthony Powell suggesting that he should reprint one, possibly two, of Powell's pre-war novels. This led to an animated exchange of letters about the production and sale of Two Novels: Venusberg and Agents & Patients and a longstanding friendship. When Powell became Literary Editor of Punch the correspondence took on a new life as both men helped each other find books to review or sell. The result is a literary kaleidoscope with London and New York equally represented. It also reminds a later generation of the lasting rewards of letter writing.

Copies may be ordered by emailing secretary@anthonypowell.org.