DL/A-Z//KINGSO - [Correspondence with Barbara Kingsolver]

DL/A-Z//KINGSO

File

[Correspondence with Barbara Kingsolver]

11/02/1999

1 Letters (typescript)

Kingsolver, Barbara

001 is a letter from Barbara Kingsolver to Doris Lessing, following up on a visit to Lessing. She mentions having once been a member of the Socialist Workers Party as a teenager, and the difficulty of revealing that fact in later life. She refers to Lessing's book Walking in the Shade, which mentions a short story called Hunger, which Lessing stated was weak because it was written to contain a moral. However, Kingsolver states that everything she writes is "constructed to carry a message". She states that her "justification" for being a writer is "theme". She states that hearing Lessing attack a work of literature for being moral and political made her quake with fear. She states that she does not expect a reply from Lessing. Lessing hand writes "Letter. 19.2.99".