Beschreibung:

WOLFE, THOMAS. Autograph manuscript signed of his essay "What a Writer Reads." [Probably New York, 1935]. 23 pages, 4to, (the last page 8vo), a working draft with extensive revisions written in pencil on the rectos of 23 sheets; lacking the final page [24], undoubtedly an octavo page (similar to page [23]) which would contain the last 25 words of the printed text (part of a sentence); 5 of the pages on yellow copy paper browned. With an additional 5 pages, 4to , of autograph manuscript at the end, being assorted rejected pages from a different (earlier?) draft; and with 2 pages on versos of 2 of the sheets of the manuscript containing fragments in Wolfe's holograph on different subjects (window displays/advertising). In a maroon half-morocco slipcase. Bookplate of Perry Molstad. The equivalent of 10 pages of text in this manuscript (between pages 1-23), and of course the 5 rejected pages, were not used in the printed version, which first appeared in the Scribner's periodical The Book-Buyer (December 1935), and was later anthologized numerous times. In his essay Wolfe treats a subject he dealt with frequently in his fiction: his own reading. He discusses specifically what he, as a creative writer, reads for relaxation to refresh himself after literary efforts. Rather than "light reading," Wolfe prefers "...a certain difficulty. By this I do not mean the difficulty of willful and deliberate obscurity, but the difficulty that comes from the effort fully to absorb and comprehend the subtlety, richness and complexity of a high total." Wolfe goes on to list his favorite books, including War and Peace, Moby Dick, Ulysses , and "books which are full of interesting facts," such as The World Almanac . Of poets, he particularly enjoys reading Donne, Milton, Keats, and Whitman. Thomas Wolfe manuscripts, certainly of this length and interest are extremely rare on the market. As virtually all of his manuscripts are at Harvard (and a few other libraries), very little can ever be available for sale.