Review of Henry Handel Richardson: The Letters, edited by Clive Probyn and Bruce Steele, with Rachel Solomon and Patrick O'Neill

Abstract

Literary embargo is one of the banes of most researchers. Who has not had a promising track of inquiry suddenly blocked by the familiar catalogue entry 'restricted'? The positive aspect of this predicament—although hardly one likely to console a frustrated researcher at the time—is that eventually new papers will come to light, perhaps breathing life into a well-known field and affording new perspectives on a writer and his or her work. The papers of Henry Handel Richardson are a case in point. While a variety of material such as manuscripts and notebooks had been accessible to researchers, important caches of letters had been closed until March 1996. These previously closed collections, coupled with new letters unearthed by her editors' efforts, have provided the basis for this superb three-volume edition of her correspondence. I use 'superb' advisedly to refer to the overall quality of the publication and to the editors' work.