BOOKS: The Forster-Cavafy Letters

Alexandria

If ever there was an odd literary friendship it was between Constance Cavafy and E.M. Forster__ Forster the novelist and Cavafy the poet. Both met in Alexandria while working for the Red Cross during WWI. Forster worked tirelessly for the publication of an English translation of Cavafy’s poems. During this time they corresponded often by letter. In, The Forster-Cavafy Letters: Friends at a Slight Angle (2009) edited by Peter Jefferys, these letters have been collected for the first time into a single volume that sheds valuable light on one of the most interesting literary “mentorships” of the 20^th century. The letters span about fifteen years and show a rather asymmetrical relationship. Forester’s letters are effusive, Cavafy’s letters reserved and laconic at times. Part of this was because of personality, but there were also political and historical factors at play. All this is nicely discussed in Jeffrey’s informative introduction. Some of these letters are extremely interesting as when forester discuses depravity with Cavafy and whether a writer needs to be depraved in order to write well. Hmm. The conversations are odd at times because each stood “at a slight angle to the other.” In other words, each was not particularly sympathetic to the others view of things. Yet an intimate friendship was there. Forster was always pushing to launch Cavafy’s literary career. Cavafy, always resisting. An English translation was never published in Cavafy’s lifetime, but Forster was able to place a poem here and there literary magazines which led to the first collected English translation in 1951. What made this odd friendship tick? These letters will reveal it. Recommended.