Fred Busch has been a continuous favorite writer of mine since I first discovered a copy of his novel HARRY AND CATHERINE on a remainder table more than twenty years ago. Since then I have read at least twenty of his books. I think he wrote twenty-nine in all before his sudden and untimely death in 2006. Busch did not enjoy a great deal of commercial success in his writing, but he was widely respected within the literary world, often called a "writer's writer." He taught literature and writing at Colgate University for over thirty years, and during his time there he began a Living Writers program in which he invited numerous working writers to come and spend a day or two with his classes discussing the craft of writing. Many of those visiting writers are, I suspect, included in this volume of letters of advice to aspiring writers, LETTERS TO A FICTION WRITER, edited by Busch. There are more than thirty writers represented here. Busch's own contribution is a quite hilarious and yet profoundly wise fictitious letter written to an anonymous manuscript reader who once rejected his work. Frederick Busch's fiction is often quite dark, probing some of the most disturbing elements of the human psyche, but he also possesses a keen sense of humor. If you're looking for a memoir from Busch, sadly, you won't find one. The closest you will come will be a set of essays he wrote entitled A DANGEROUS PROFESSION, which contains perhaps his most personal look at his early days as a writer in a piece called "The Floating Christmas Tree."

This particular collection includes offerings from such literary luminaries as Charles Baxter, Joyce Carol Oates, Andre Dubus, Anne Beattie, Tobias Wolff, Reynolds Price and others. Another favorite of mine, John Updike, is in here too, although his very brief comments in a letter to his then-student, Nicholas Delbanco, is oddly uninspired and even a bit disappointing. But then Updike was only very briefly a teacher (at Harvard) in a long and illustrious career as a full-time writer.

With all of these famous writers in here, the letters I found most interesting were, oddly, from a couple I'd never heard of before. One, Stanley W. Lindberg, quite soundly berates a young would-be MFA candidate who has been rejected by the Iowa Writers Workshop for his presumption at calling himself an "author" when he has yet to prove himself as any kind of a writer. Strindberg advises this young man, 'Joel,' to "stop negotiating imaginary contracts, basking in media spotlights, signing books you've yet to write for your thousands of adoring fans - and work instead to become a 'writer.'..." The kind of dreams of literary fame he derides here are, I'm quite sure, not limited to just Joel.

The other letter I most enjoyed here was one by Native-American author (yes, he is most certainly an Author) James Welch, whose own humility and sense of wonder at what he has been able to accomplish is eloquently yet simply put in a letter of advice to a fellow Native-American who wants to write. What Welch gives this young man is a kind of thumbnail memoir of his own struggles to become a writer, an account which is absolutely fascinating. He tells of how one of his teachers, poet Richard Hugo, told him to just write about being an Indian. In other words, that old chestnut: write about what you know. There's a hell of a lot more to Welch's letter than that, of course; it is packed with wisdom dispensed with utmost humility.

Most of these letters have something important to say, and not just advice either. They are full of life, and the lives they tell about are full and fascinating. I very much enjoyed reading them. Once again Fred Busch has produced an important book about literature, its importance, and how it comes to be. Highly recommended to anyone who loves books. ( )