Call Number:

F1026

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

6 item

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0099, F1026, Literary letters to Dr. Alvin C. Weseley, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1987-1995 (inclusive)

Creator:

Smiley, Jane, McMurtry, Larry, and Tallent, Elizabeth, 1954-

Form:

Letters (correspondence) and Postcards

Abstract:

This collection consists of correspondence from writers Elizabeth Tallent, Jane Smiley, and Larry McMurtry to Dr. Alvin C. Weseley, dating between 1987 and 1995.

Dr. Alvin C. Weseley was born on August 2, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York. Weseley enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 17, where he served as an x-ray technician. He received his medical training at Downstate College of Medicine, and his training in obstetrics and gynecology at Bellevue Hospital. He practiced medicine for almost fifty years and had an interest in art, literature, tennis, and musical comedy. Weseley died in New York, New York, on August 1, 2016.

Alvin C. Weseley obituary, The New York Times, August 7, 2016 (accessed June 27, 2017)Information derived from the collection.

This collection consists of correspondence from writers Elizabeth Tallent, Jane Smiley, and Larry McMurtry to Dr. Alvin C. Weseley, dating between 1987 and 1995.

In the two letters and two postcards from Elizabeth Tallent, dated 1988 and 1995, she expressed her pleasure at Dr. Weseley’s appreciation of her writing. In a postcard from 1987, author Jane Smiley expressed her gratitude for Weseley’s praise of her writing, and described her admiration for the works of George Eliot, whose work was also admired by Weseley. Larry McMurtry’s undated, handwritten letter advised Weseley where he might obtain copies of his earlier novels.