This collection consists primarily of correspondence between Edmund Wilson and William Fenton during the years 1957-1972. The 59 letters are concerned primarily with New York State Indians, for Fenton, the Assistant Commissioner of the New York State Museum and Science Service, was an expert on Indians who helped Wilson with the research for his book APOLOGIES TO THE IROQUOIS. The two were friends, however, so personal information on both men also is found in the letters. The collection is especially useful for Fenton's critical comments on Wilson's book and for his discussions of the various instances during those years of flooding of Indian land for power projects. St. Lawrence does not own the literary rights to this collection.
October 1957 letter from Edmund Wilson to William Fenton.
Collection Overview
Edmund Wilson, literary and social critic, was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1895. As early as his prep school and college days, he showed an aptitude for literary criticism. While editing a literary magazine at Princeton, he helped form the career of his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald. During his lifetime, he served as a
writer for, or editor of, such journals as VANITY FAIR, the NEW REPUBLIC, and the NEW YORKER. In addition, he wrote some 25 books of satiric verse, fiction, drama, history, literary criticism, and social commentary.
Wilson was a socialist who felt increasing discomfort in America as the years went by. He disagreed with the way his taxes were being spent, refused to pay, and ran into considerable trouble with the Internal Revenue Service; the details of this situation were described in his book, THE COLD WAR AND THE INCOME TAX: A PROTEST. The book APOLOGIES TO THE IROQUOIS which is the main focus of this collection of letters developed from a series of articles written for the NEW YORKER. In it, Wilson gives an account of life among the Iroquois Indians today in New York State and Ontario and considers how to right the injustice he feels has been done to them. In spite of his disillusionment with the U.S., he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in l963.
In his later years Wilson lived mainly in Wellfleet on Cape Cod and in Talcottville, a small North Country town which was his mother's birthplace. He died in 1972.
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