The Delicacy and Strength of Lace [Paperback]

Leslie Marmon Silko (Author), James Wright (Author), Anne Wright (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1985

This moving, eighteen-month exchange of correspondence chronicles the friendship-through-the-mail of two extraordinary writers.

Leslie Marmon Silko is a poet and novelist. James Wright won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his Collected Poems. They met only twice. First, briefly, in 1975, at a writers conference in Michigan. Their correspondence began three years later, after Wright wrote to Silko praising her book Ceremony. The letters begin formally, and then each writer gradually opens to the other, venturing to share his or her life, work and struggles. The second meeting between the two writers came in a hospital room, as James Wright lay dying of cancer.

The New York Times wrote something of Wright that applies to both writers-- of qualities that this exchange of letters makes evident. "Our age desperately needs his vision of brotherly love, his transcendent sense of nature, the clarity of his courageous voice."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This tender volume follows the blossoming friendship through letters between Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Wright and the then-young poet and novelist Leslie Marmon Silko. The charming correspondences, which unfurled over the final year and a half of Wright's life (1978-1980), are all about the difficulties and sweet pleasures of life, work, writing, and encounters with mean roosters. Silko considers the ways in which her work is imbued with the spirit of her Laguna Pueblo Indian heritage. Wright discusses the need to let a poem sit for a while before showing it to the world, as a poem "goes through changes ... when you leave it alone patiently, just as surely as a plant does, or an animal, or any other creature." Together they explore the catharsis of storytelling, the overwhelming power of words ("how deeply we can touch each other with them," writes Silko), and the beauty of a gentle yet passionate friendship between like-minded souls.

From Publishers Weekly

Laguna Pueblo Indian writer Silko met Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Wright at a writers' conference and the two subsequently struck up an extraordinarily intimate 18-month correspondence that ended with Wright's death of cancer in 1980 at the age of 52. While the writers comment upon one another's work, and several of Silko's poems are included, neither author addresses literary concerns in other than the broadest terms. Early on, Silko writes: "I remember the poems you readnew ones . . . It was those that moved me." But the reader is never given enough specific comment to speculate upon the writing to which she refers, even if a clear assessment was offered. Wright is equally vague in his evaluations, and the result is a vapid reciprocity of discourse that delivers little insight into either writer's ouevre.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press; 1st edition (November 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915308746
• ISBN-13: 978-0915308743
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving, personal exchange of letters, February 10, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Delicacy and Strength of Lace (Paperback)

_The Delicacy and Strength of Lace_ is an incredibly moving exchange between two great American poets who only met briefly on two occasions: Wright heard Silko read from her work which initiated the correspondence; Silko visited Wright on his deathbed. In between they exchanged letters about their everyday existences, everything from Silko's rooster to the nature of another animal, the human animal. Wright's inititial letter told Silko of his high regard for her book, _Ceremony_ and it's importance and stature in American literature. The letters quickly take on the knowing, personal feel of two people who have known each other for years. The reader is drawn into their lives and, especially, their visions. I recently re-read the book, and once again found myself examining along with the writers the very heart and nature of our existence in this vale of tears. Fans of the poetry of either will find this exchange especially enlightening, but I came to it unfamiiliar with either and found its simplicity and yet its warmth and vision compelling. I often give it as a gift. My copy has been around the world. This is a book to read, relish and re-read. Most readers will probably move next to the works of these two wonderfully compassionate soulmates. Many of Silko's poems appear in the letters.