A beloved university teacher and an esteemed literary critic, Austin Warren (1899–1986) was also an extraordinary epistolary artist. In its parts and whole, this calling ultimately became an aesthetic, social, moral, and spiritual discipline that demanded of him steadfast effort and faith. During a long lifetime, he produced a steady stream of letters to friends and colleagues, adjutants and auditors; all his letters evinced the concerns of a fully engaged writer seeking and finding his vocation. These letters are not simply those of a man of letters, but also of a man in search of his interior self. Self-examination is an integral facet that one discovers in them, though subjective absorptions do not blemish an ardent appeal for dialogue, for connection and understanding.
The Letters of Austin Warren enables a reader to perceive what epistolary art signifies, and to appreciate the rehabilitative powers and possibilities of communication and connection that it generates. A reader who enters into this unique epistolary community will find there a rich and incessant flow of ideas, seriously and strenuously deliberated, as well as to hear conversations that are vigorous, dignified, and sapient in tone and content. One who pores over these letters will take an intimate part in the works and days of Austin Warren, Man of Letters and Epistolary Artist.