Dear Wizard

Nicholas Delbanco has assembled a carefully selected, highly crafted work based on over 30 years’ correspondence with Jon Manchip White, a prolific author of screenplays, novels, and radio plays; a university professor; and a “bon vivant.” Delbanco’s exchange of letters with the larger-than-life figure began in 1980 and continued until White’s death in the summer of 2012. The two authors’ interaction is framed by a contest to outdo each other in locales and institutions represented on the letterheads and stationery employed. The letters range from light to serious, at times investigating the art and practice of writing; critiquing the authors’ own work and that of colleagues; assessing the state of the writering profession; negotiating age, illness, and loss.