This glowing review of Brenda, My Darling — the first review we’ve seen of the English edition — was posted a few days ago by South African blogger and writing teacher Merle Levin. She writes:
I have just returned from teaching a writing workshop in Norway. It was there I discovered the newly published love letters of Norway’s much loved Fridtjof Nansen(1861-1930) – arctic explorer, author, Nobel prize winner and humanitarian – to American author and journalist, Brenda Ueland, 30 years his junior. The country was abuzz at the publication of these letters – so intimate and revealing of a new side of their aristocratic hero – the leading newspaper Aftenposten even published his full frontal nude photos sent to his beloved Brenda Ueland – an author I have long loved and admired myself. Her book “If you want to write” published in the ‘30’s, is my dog-eared bible.
Yesterday I returned to Cape Town from London. If you’re bound for Cape Town via Doha on a 24 hour journey – I highly recommend these letters to ease the pain of cramped seats, recycled air and inedible food. None of it mattered! Through his letters I traveled on a journey of the soul – and realize more deeply how love transcends space and time, how it has the power to open new insights into this mystery of life. The poets know it, the great artists connect to this force – I feel as if I too, from 30,000 feet high, had a window into this miracle.
Read the entire post here.
