Writers’ Letters to George Sylvester Viereck in a Private Collection

Abstract

German-born American poet, novelist, journalist and editor George Sylvester Viereck (1884 –1962) during his almost 60-year literary career (his first poem was published in 1898) befriended, met and corresponded with hundreds of contemporaries, including world famous persons. His first biographer Elmer Gertz wrote in 1954, “One should go through Viereck’s correspondence with the great personalities of his time in order to learn the full extent of the admiration they expressed for him. Alas, that correspondence is scattered; but excerpts from it can be found in the catalogues of various autograph dealers and should be preserved”. Liberated from prison in 1947 Viereck was not able to restore his previous position in literary world, was in need of money and had to sell autographs from his personal archive. This publication includes letters of four writers addressed to Viereck and dealing with his literary and editorial work. All of them are preserved in the author’s private collection and are published in English for the first time. In Russian translation one letter is published for the first time, another one was previously published, two letters were quoted. Journalist, writer, and politician Brand Whitlock (1869 –1934) followed Viereck’s journalistic activities as well as his Decadent poetry. English author and poet Richard Le Gallienne (1866 –1947), being a living incarnation of the “naughty nineties” for Viereck, valued contributing to his magazine The International. Known as the Dean of American Biographers, famous writer Gamaliel Bradford (1863 –1932) refused to support Viereck’s protest against the prohibition of his novel My First 2000 Years in the Irish Free State. Poet, artist and filmmaker Ferdinand Earle (1878 –1951) remained faithful to his long friendship with Viereck even when the latter was emprisoned.