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A review by satyridae
Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom by Ursula Nordstrom, Leonard S. Marcus, Maurice Sendak
2.0
What I liked about this collection of letters is the way UN's wry wit was always in evidence. It was fun to read some of the letters to authors I know and love.
What I didn't like was the lack of context, the disconnected nature of only getting one side of the conversation.
What drove me crazy is maybe only something I don't understand, perhaps some scholarly convention- but I found it maddening that the editor assigned "short" names to some of the authors as if he would be referring to them by these compressed names but then continued to use the whole name, followed by the shortened version in parentheses throughout.
In summation I see the merit of a book of letters but I'd have been much, much happier with a biography.
What I didn't like was the lack of context, the disconnected nature of only getting one side of the conversation.
What drove me crazy is maybe only something I don't understand, perhaps some scholarly convention- but I found it maddening that the editor assigned "short" names to some of the authors as if he would be referring to them by these compressed names but then continued to use the whole name, followed by the shortened version in parentheses throughout.
In summation I see the merit of a book of letters but I'd have been much, much happier with a biography.