The Oxford Book of Letters
Sir Philip Sidney begins a May 1578 letter, "Few words are best." Happily, Frank and Anita Kermode, the editors of this 500-page collection, disagree. Thanks to them, we can now guiltlessly eavesdrop on writers such as Elizabeth I,Pope,Keats, and the most verbal Marx Brother. When Warner Brothers objects to the titleA Night in Casablanca, Groucho innocently responds, "I just don't understand your attitude. Even if you plan on re-releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don't know whether I could, but I would certainly like to try." A paragraph later, Groucho tells the studio, "Professionally, we were brothers long before you were." The ironies just keep on coming.ButThe Oxford Book of Lettersgoes beyond (actual, literary, and  Hollywood) royalty. It also includes letters home from emigrants, "a sprightly Birmingham schoolmistress," and other uncelebrated individuals. Some are witty, others bizarre, and still others contain "jokes and teases that depend on a prior intimacy but can sometimes be enjoyed by the  voyeur." In their fine introduction, the editors term 1700-1918 "the  great age of letter-writing," though their selections from other eras are a  long way from weak. They are right, however, about the fact that there will be  fewer future epistolary contenders. Fortunately, this book--and the many from  which it is pillaged--will still be on hand.