But he hadn't just read a year's worth of letters about my life. The connection traveled only one way. Lacy had edited for Duke University Press a book of garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence's letters to gardeners all over the country, from Eudora Welty to country farm women to the famous Mr. Krippendorf of Ohio, who owned so much land he planted bulbs by the thousands. In the book's introduction, Lacy wrote that he never knew Lawrence and was the poorer for it. He regretted never receiving a letter from her.
Nobody writes letters anymore.
My editor sends me a business card with maybe four words scrawled on it. Fact is, he wasn't too philosophical about the art of letter writing, or friendship, or the experience of the book and of that year of his life, except that when he began, he wasn't sure how long he'd live. He said he and Goodwin were very different people. He didn't save Goodwin's letters because he has too many files. He much prefers e-mail.