[Lionel Trilling, American literary critic.] Typed Letter Signed ('Lionel Trilling') to 'Miss Last', discussing the critical response to his novel ('The Middle of the Journey') and 'the choice' between two books on Oscar Wilde'.

2pp., 12mo. 33 lines of text. The first paragraph reads: 'Dear Miss Last: | I'm afraid I can't give you first-hand help on the choice between [Frank] Harris and [Hesketh] Pearson on Wilde - ignorance, madam, sheer ignorance. But I consulted a friend who is interested in Wilde and knows the literature well and he says that you should not accept either without the other, that they each offer views that are necessary for an attempt to get the figure of Wilde in reasonable view. I suppose Pearson says that Harris was a congenital and incorrigible liar, which of course he was, but he was also a very shrewd and intelligent man.' He now turns to his only novel, 'The Middle of the Journey', published in 1947. 'What you say about my novel gives me the very greatest pleasure - I mean not merely that you liked it but that your response to it was emotional and to it as a story.' He has been 'a little set back on my heels by the implication, or more, of most of the published criticism, evan that which undertook to like the book, that it was intellectual and on the dryish side, interesting as the exposition of idea'. He adds that 'any such direct response' as hers, proving that '[n]ot all readers, as opposed to critics, feel like this', 'cheers me immeasurably'. He concludes with a renewed apology over the 'Wilde books': 'I had hoped to be able to read them to form an opinion before writing you, but I hadn't the time.' He suggests that she write to the English Wilde biographer Richard Aldington, who he believes is 'still in this country'.