For Womens History Month: Rebecca West died on this day in 1983. The Columbia Encyclopedia calls her one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century. So she was, and much more: brilliant journalist, novelist, travel writer, art critic, fiery feminist. Can you name another writer with friendships like hers?--ranging from Paul Robeson to Alan Dulles? Affairs with H.G. Wells and Francis Biddle, FDRs attorney general and Nuremberg Trials prosecutor. She wrote one of the towering works of twentieth literature: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Her novel of World War I, Return of the Soldier, is a classic. She understood the nature of Communism decades before Orwell did. When Virginia Woolf wanted to know what was happening in the world she turned to Rebecca West. Into Wests late 80s she was producing book reviews in the Sunday Telegraph that remain the best examples of the form we have. Yet a whole generation of women writers--like Susan Sontag and Sylvia Plath--did not read West. Frankly, its an outrage.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:39:42 +0000
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