A Cloak of Light (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

This is the third volume of Morris’ memoirs. WILL’S BOY (1981) traces his boyhood in Nebraska and Chicago, SOLO (1983), his first trip to Europe. A CLOAK OF LIGHT begins shortly after his return to the United States in 1934 and continues to 1960, emphasizing his development as a writer. Morris recounts his courtship of his first wife while they were college students in Claremont, California, and the financially difficult early years of their marriage when Mary Ellen Morris worked as a music teacher to support her husband’s efforts to become a novelist.

Morris also became seriously interested in photography during this time and traveled across the country several times, taking his distinctive pictures of houses, rooms, belongings, and other artifacts which help define the American character. Many of these photographs appeared in THE INHABITANTS (1946) the first of his five photo-text books; some of them, as well as a selection of later photographs, are included in A CLOAK OF LIGHT.

Through such journeys across America and into Mexico, Morris discovered his true voice as a writer and the subject of his art: the inseparable relation between character and place.

The inspiration for, writing of, and reception (or lack of reception) of twelve of Morris’ twenty novels are detailed, as are his relations with agents, editors, and publishers, including Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons, and his friendships with such writers as Saul Bellow and Loren Eisely.

Throughout his career, Morris has been, despite winning numerous awards, more admired than read. One of the many charms of this memoir is the lack of bitterness over this neglect. Morris early became reconciled to the fact that the only kind of novel he could write--quiet, insightful studies of ordinary Americans--would not bring him much fame but would satisfy him as an artist.

Bibliography

Abbey, Edward. Review of A Cloak of Light in The New York Times Book Review. XC (February 17, 1985), p. 9.

Allen, Bruce. Review of A Cloak of Light in The Christian Science Monitor. February 28, 1985, p. 20.

Crump, G. B. The Novels of Wright Morris: A Critical Interpretation, 1978.

Knoll, Robert E., ed. Conversations with Wright Morris: Critical Views and Responses, 1977.

Madden, David. Wright Morris, 1964.

Simon, Linda. Review of A Cloak of Light in Library Journal. CIX (December, 1984), p. 2272.