Letters from Moritz Thomsen: Peace Corps Legend

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Who was Moritz Thomsen? Author of the "Bible" of the Peace Corps, "Living Poor," Moritz Thomsen has been called the greatest American writer you've never heard of. Larry McMurtry called "his voice--cranky, intolerant, tough-minded, generous to those whose faults appealed to him--was like no other...I've come away from each of his four books feeling exhilarated--not because of what happens in the books but because the writing is so good." Lawrence Millman called Moritz Thomsen "a warhorse, iconoclast, storyteller ... on the short list of our very best writers.” Tim Cahill said: "Moritz Thomsen was among the most elegant of writers, capable of breaking your heart in a single sentence and making you laugh out loud in the next. The man lived in lacerating voluntary poverty, a ragamuffin wordsmith little read or appreciated outside of a small coterie of awestruck writers and editors." Journalist Christopher West Davis met Moritz Thomsen just once and struck up a correspondence — and through it a friendship — with him that lasted for ten years right up until Thomsen's death. This is the story of that friendship. Katherine Stirling of "The New Yorker" called Davis's "Letters from Moritz Thomsen:" “An utterly engrossing story… these marvelous letters and the attendant chronicle of the relationship that developed over their course is a story that is at once fascinating and quite moving, a hard balance to strike, in writing as in life.” An amazon.com customer wrote: "This eloquent, gusty, amusing, and inspiring retrospective about the early days of the Peace Corps and the author's deep desire to learn how to write well is a must read for all who aspire to become masters of the craft of writing--and a tonic for those already established. Davis is a veteran journalist with very impressive credentials. 'Letters' exhibits just how he achieved his success: by earnest commitment and a willingness to learn from a singular mentor. The well paced epistolary chronicle provides critical insight into an important figure in American letters. It's a fine document about life in the Peace Corps in the turbulent 1970s. It's also just plain fun to read! Highly recommended." Thomsen was an American master too soon passed by and forgotten, never awarded the attention he deserved. In his often irreverent but always deeply heartfelt and intellectual letters, he discusses everything from Stravinsky and Tolstoy to Proust, Hemingway, Stegner and his devoted apostle Paul Theroux, one of whose letters to Thomsen is featured in this collection.

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