Between Friends (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Mary McCarthy, Hannah Arendt
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Letters
- Time of Work: 1949-1975
- Principal Characters: Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy
- Genres: Nonfiction, Epistolary literature
- Subjects: Politics, Authors or writers, Marriage, Friendship, Writing, Women, Divorce, Creative process
Biography presents a picture of a person’s life through the eyes as well as the bias of the biographer. Autobiography does much the same, except that its perspective is presumed to be more accurate, since it is the unique view of the subject. Yet even autobiography records from a distance, through the filter of time and space. Therefore it is not quite congruent to the actual event or to the person it highlights. A letter, on the other hand, offers an existential yet enduring window into a lived reality and into the person experiencing it as it occurs. The strength of the letter is...
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