A first volume of Janet Frame's letters

 

Jay to Bee
 Janet Frame's Letters to William Theophilus Brown

 

Editor: Denis Harold
Publisher: Counterpoint Press, USA

Date: April 12, 2016
Hardcover: 464 pages
Size: 6 x 9 "
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1619027283
ISBN-13: 978-1619027282

Publisher's Catalogue Copy:

During her time at an artists’ colony in New Hampshire, Janet Frame met California painter William Theophilus ('Bill') Brown, and their friendship resulted in a whimsical and artistic correspondence. In Brown, Frame found an ideal listener who inspired her to take the art of letter writing to new creative heights; over the course of their correspondence, Frame included character sketches, personal disclosures, invented tales, and dozens of her own doodles and collages.

This compilation of nearly 140 letters, accompanied by hundreds of original illustrations, has been published nowhere else in the world, including Frame’s home country of New Zealand. This moving and enlightening correspondence opens up the hopes, fears, joys, and inner machinations of one of the world’s greatest writers. The closeness and intimacy of the two artists allows for unfettered wordplay and creativity, where Janet is 'Jay' and Bill is 'Bee'; the result is a book that vividly captures the brilliantly unique wit that was Janet Frame.