OK, good. I've started it, but hadn't actually been hooked yet. Essays by successful writers fondly recalling youthful correspondences with other writers have come to seem kind of cliched. But Mendelsohn is a good writer. With that high recommendation, friend, I'll stick with it.
Of course, my high recommendation is also based on my being a Mary Renault fan. Someone who doesn't enjoy her books may find Mendelsohn's essay just plain boring. Plus, it's also yet another coming out story
(groan). ![Roll Eyes ::)](http://bettermost.net/forum/Smileys/cowboy/rolleyes.gif)
Also, since I finished the article, I've been thinking, "Well, I guess I'm really not a writer, then, because I could never be as self-dramatizing as Mendelsohn is in this essay!"
![laugh :laugh:](http://bettermost.net/forum/Smileys/cowboy/laugh.gif)
But the article "spoke" to me for a couple of reasons. I figure from the dates and school years that he mentions, Mendelsohn is about three years younger than me, but that still puts us fairly close in age. I came to Mary Renault's novels at a few years older than he did, but I love them, too, and Mendelsohn has got me wondering what influence they may have had on my own ideals of love and gay relationships (I might be a little older than Mendelsohn, but, hey, I was a late bloomer). It's rare that I can say that a magazine article has stayed with me after I've completed it the way Mendelsohn's essay has.
I've also found myself wondering how and why it is, that so many of my favorite authors are English women: Alison Weir (Tudor history), Mary Renault, Ellis Peters (real name: Edith Pargeter).
![Huh? ???](http://bettermost.net/forum/Smileys/cowboy/huh.gif)