A very large soul: selected letters from Margaret Laurence to Canadian writers A very large soul: selected letters from Margaret Laurence to Canadian writers

• Main Author: John J. O'Connor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2008-04-01
• Series: Ilha do Desterro
• Subjects: English Language; English
• Online Access: http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/8656
• ISSN: 0101-4846; 2175-8026

“This will be a brief letter, as I have a horrifying stack of business letters to catch up on,” wrote Margaret Laurence
 to her friend and fellow novelist Gabrielle Roy in 1978, echoing an earlier lament to her epistolary friend Ernest Buckler about the need to “keep pace with the ghastly flow of business correspondence.” Although she was always to face some tension between her personal and professional selves as
 correspondent, her priority was never in question: “Must go. I have 70 letters to reply to, having got far behind in
 correspondence ... am trying now to communicate once again with dear friends first, and then to answer all the others, which will no doubt be my winter project” (4 Sept. 1974 letter to Silver Donald Cameron). “This will be a brief letter, as I have a horrifying stack of business letters to catch up on,” wrote Margaret Laurence
 to her friend and fellow novelist Gabrielle Roy in 1978, echoing an earlier lament to her epistolary friend Ernest Buckler about the need to “keep pace with the ghastly flow of business correspondence.” Although she was always to face some tension between her personal and professional selves as
 correspondent, her priority was never in question: “Must go. I have 70 letters to reply to, having got far behind in
 correspondence ... am trying now to communicate once again with dear friends first, and then to answer all the others, which will no doubt be my winter project” (4 Sept. 1974 letter to Silver Donald Cameron).