‘Meetings which are not precisely personal’

Abstract

In a way [my experience] is a sort of the obverse of Jim McConkey’s because it is about a letter I got from E. M. Forster when I was a beginning writer. That is a meeting at a different point in life from when you met which was a real meeting. I had published a number of short stories but I wasn’t known anywhere, and I received this letter one day where I live in Jackson, Mississippi. It was written in New York City, and dated 28 April, 1947. I copied it off to bring:

Dear Miss Welty: Finding myself in your country I feel I should like to give myself the pleasure of writing you a line and telling you how much I enjoy your work ‘The Wide Net’. All the wild and lovely things it brings up have often been with me and delighted me. I am afraid that I am unlikely to have the good fortune of meeting you while I am over here since my itinerary keeps me to the North and to the West. Still there are meetings which are not precisely personal and I’ve had the advantage of one of these through you, and I would like to thank you for it. With kind regards and all good wishes. Yours sincerely, E. M. Forster.

From ‘Writers’ Panel’, E. M. Forster: Centenary Revaluations, ed. Judith Scherer Herz and Robert K. Martin (London: Macmillan, 1982) pp. 298–9.