An Artist in Love

The artist was Rockwell Kent; the object of his affections was the wife of American diplomat William Bullitt, to whom Kent wrote, in his exquisite hand, of his overwhelming attraction and the fierce intensity of his desire. The letters-which leave us wondering what finally happened to these star-crossed lovers-come to Georgetown as part of the gift of his personal papers by John G. ("Jack") Deedy, for long a journalist with The Catholic Free Press in Worcester, Massachusetts, and later managing editor of Commonweal.

Remarkable as the Kent letters are, however, they represent only one facet of what amounts to an important addition to the library's holdings of literary letters and manuscripts. Letters and typescripts of poems and essays by writers such as Martha Gellhorn, Graham Greene, Walker Percy, J. F. Powers, and John Updike are supplemented by material by and about a host of artists, politicians, photographers, and other notables from the 18th century up to our own times.