381 CHRONICLESnThe Discoverynby David HallmannThe Southern Vision of AndrewnLytle by Mark Lucas, BatonnRouge: Louisiana State UniversitynPress.nThe old saw tells us that all things comento those who wait. And what a joy it isnto find Andrew Lytle, in his vigorousn80’s, receiving his just due, howevernlate. The Richard Weaver Award bynThe Ingersoll Foundation, a generousngrant by the Lyndhurst Foundation fornhis contribution to his Southern culture,nhonorary degrees from collegesnhither and yon, and the recent appreciationnof the Southern Agrarian Movement,nwith all its literary and socialnimplications, all testify to his stature as anman and a writer. A full literary biographynis in the making, his books arenbeing gradually republished, and nownwe have at last the first complete criticalnappreciation of Lytle’s contribution tonAmerican writing.nBOOKS IN BRIEF—LITERARYnMark Lucas’ The Southern Visionnof Andrew Lytle is, I believe, only thensecond book devoted exclusively tonLytle as an artist in his own right rathernthan as a member of a now-celebratedngroup of writers. There have beennbibliographies, scattered essays, and anfine collection of criticisms edited bynM.E. Bradford, all of which attest tonhis standing in the world of letters. Asnnovelist, critic, and editor, Lytle hasnenjoyed a career spanning over 60nyears. If the appreciation is late inncoming, if he has sometimes laborednin the shadows of his friends andncohorts—John Crowe Ransom, AllennTate, Robert Penn Warren — then thenbelated celebration is all the morenwelcome.nLucas’ title, however. The SouthernnVision, is somewhat misleading.nLytle’s family background is Tennessean;nhe was an intimate with the VanderbiltnFugitives and one of the mostnaggressive of the Agrarians; his artnalmost always deals explicitly with thenSouth of his experience, but Lytle isnData by Patrick Bresson, New York: Franklin Watts; $15.95. Translated from Frenchnby Nicole Irving. Winner of the Grand Prix du Roman of the Academie Frangaise forn1985, this story of post-World War II Europe cannot escape the flippant Gallicism of itsnauthor. Bresson, who published eight novels before he was 28, writes of what he could havenlearned only by hearsay, though he does it well, taking care not to garble too many SouthnSlav names and events.nWinter in Moscow by Malcolm Muggeridge, Grand Rapids, MI: William B.nEerdmans Publishing Co. This reprint of the 1934 classic tale of Stalin’s Moscow, seennthrough Western eyes, is a welcome reminder that many things change, but the gullibility,nignorance, superficiality, and venality of Western journalists do not.nDivertimento 1889hy Guido Morselli, New York: E.P. Dutton; $15.95. Translatednfrom Italian by Hugh Shankland. Fifteen years after his suicide as an unknown novelistnin 1973, Guido Morselli is the literary cause celebre of Italy. His novel, unjustly comparednto Nabokov (why must critics think in similes?), is an accomplishment by a genfleman whonknew and loved his world.nBetween tlie Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor, New York: Viking;n$18.95. There are still travelers (as opposed to tourists), though not too many like Mr.nFermor, His wonderful journey through 1933 Europe — its past, present, and future, itsnpeoples, and himself—is one of those rare, unclassifiable books destined, unfortunately, tonlanguish in the “Travel” sections of public libraries.nPartings by Leonid Borodin, San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; $15.95. Thisnnovel by a former Soviet prisoner of conscience tells it as it is — a survival game in a largenglasriost zoo, hardly different from what Muggeridge has seen, back in the 30’s.nNew Writers of the South: A Fiction Anthology, edited by Charles East, Athens,nGA: University of Georgia Press; $12.95. A very good atlas of a very important literarynregion, with some gems, notably Madison Smartt Bell’s Monkey Park, Louise Shivers’nHere to Get My Baby Out of Jail, Donald Hays’s The Dixie Association, and others.nAmerican Journals by Albert Camus, New York: Paragon House; $15.95. Translatednby Hugh Levick. In a true, unliterary journal, Camus jotted his impressions of America inn1946.nnnfirst and always an artist, and likenF’aulkner, Wolfe, and Warren, his workntranscends his regional topicality. If hisn”vision” has a Southern accent, it alsonhas a universal appeal. Few writersnhave been so sophisticated in theirnknowledge and application of the craftnof writing. His devotion to thatn”craft” — one of Lytle’s favoritenwords — is the subject of Lucas’ study.nThe Southern Vision does the obvious.nMixing criticism with useful biographicalninformation, Lucas worksnchronologically through the Lytle oeuvrenfrom his biography of Confederatencavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrestnthrough selected essays developingnhis Agrarian and Southern sympathies,nshort stories, and his four novels whichnbest show the breadth and depth ofnLytle’s art. The Long Night is as bloodyna tale of vengeance as our literaturencan come up with. At the Moon’s End,non the other hand, increasingly mynpersonal favorite but long out of print,nrecounts the trek of Hernando de Sotonthrough the 16th-century Southernnwilderness. The invasion of the Spanishnconquistadors — nominally in thenname of Christendom and civilization,nbut actually in a quest for elusivengold—is a great allegory of corruptionnand hubris. And A Name for Evil hasnoften been called a Southern versionnof Henry James’s The Turn of thenScrew. It is probably Lytle’s least satisfactorynwork, but Lucas discusses itninterestingly in the context of Lytle’snattempt to restore an old and isolatedncountry home for his family during thenI940’s. Lytle considers The VelvetnHorn his masterpiece, and this underappreciatednnovel which Caroline Gordonncalled “a landmark in Americannfiction, unique in its greatness andnoriginality” is treated with due respectnhere. (But the best, and really incomparable,nstudy of this novel is Lytle’snown account of its writing. “ThenWorking Novelist and the MythmakingnProcess” is as fascinating andnfrightening an account of the creativenprocess as has ever been offered by annauthor on his own work.)nIf I might suggest a novel way tonread Lucas’ admirable study — and andifferent way to approach Lytlenhimself—the last chapter makes angood beginning. Under the heading ofn”Coda,” Lucas discusses Lytle’s latenfamily memoir A Wake for the Living.n