Letters to Men of Letters

Have you ever wanted to write a letter to an author who was important to you?

In her Letters to Men of Letters, Diane Joy Charney writes to the authors she admires, both living and dead, who continue to keep her company. Among these are Leonard Cohen, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, Albert Camus, Gustave Flaubert, Balzac, Christo, the author's father, and André Aciman.

This book features letters both real and imaginary that Charney has written to literary figures with whom she has an intense relationship. Libraries are full of books about these authors, but a letter is more intimate. Charney's letters reflect what these timeless writers have taught her about herself, but also what they can offer the reader.

In the tradition of Jacqueline Raoul-Duval's Kafka in Love and Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch, each letter to men of letters-part literary love affair, part analysis, part intellectual coming of age-shows how what one reads can be inseparable from the person one becomes.

"An insightful, thought-provoking, moving and beautifully written book. Using the unexpected and refreshing form of letters to her admired subjects, the author weaves nuanced readings of famous works with ruminations about how these relate to their creators' lives and with her own heartfelt, personal responses."
-Vladimir Alexandrov, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University

"In the age of super-fast communication, the art of letter writing is a reminder of earlier, slower, and more nurturing times. Diane Charney in her new book Letters to Men of Letters gives us a refreshing opportunity to reconnect with important literary and artistic figures. This book is part detailed scholarly research; part entertaining memoir; part sensitive, personal reflection on a myriad of topics. Beautifully written and artfully crafted, this is a book to be savored, placed lovingly on a bedside table and read slowly on sleepless nights. The author guides us on a journey of ongoing learning and discovery-not only of these selected literary figures but also of her own fascinating and full life. Her willingness to reveal her inner world can inspire readers to reflect on the fine line between imagination and reality, between the ordinary and the extraordinary that gives color and depth to each of us. Readers of all ages can find renewed energy 'to cultivate' a unique garden."
-Susan Roe Gravina

"I can't think of anyone more interested, interesting or empathetic than Diane Charney with whom to have an exchange of letters. What she has done in this book is to turn dreams into reality. She has the writing, language and educational skills, and dexterity to get inside the heads and works of her authors. We all might wish to have had the intimacy of communication with this collection of greats that only private letters can achieve. Through Diane Charney's work we are able to experience exactly that."
-Ian Morley, Author, Journalist, Founder of Wentworth Hall Family Office

"Letters to Men of Letters is fun, thoughtful, clever, and serious all at once, and has made me want to return to old favorite texts and think about what I might say to some of the authors that Diane Charney and I both admire. I was delighted to read about Professor Charney's approach to teaching Proust in jewel-like bites that feel 'like little marvels.' Her Yale office was a place of learning, conviviality, and curiosity, from which we always emerged with a smile and something new to read. These letters share the very same qualities, and have the same effect."
-Benjamin Mappin-Kasirer, Rhodes Scholar, winner of the James T. King Prize at Yale for his thesis on science and the weather in Proust, organizer of Yale University's Proust Marathon