Briefly Noted

"In 1921, Anderson was prosecuted by the U.S. government-the novel was thought "obscene"-and though Morgan focusses much of his attention on her trial, he also takes in her childhood, in Indianapolis; her years in Chicago, New York, and Paris; and her association with prominent figures of her time, such as Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and the anarchist Emma Goldman."

"The text of this slim, compressed novel is a letter written by Caroline-a New Yorker who will be familiar to readers of Zarin's 2024 novel "Inverno"-to her paramour, a man who is also seeing two other women. A wry spin on an infatuated lover's monologue, Caroline's letter is a skein of free-associative thoughts-about her children, about the husband from whom she's separated, about whatever springs to mind."

Margaret C. Anderson edited a literary magazine that serialized James Joyce's Ulysses and faced prosecution in 1921 when the novel was deemed obscene. Her life included a childhood in Indianapolis, years in Chicago, New York, and Paris, and associations with figures such as Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Emma Goldman. Anderson pursued a new path in publishing and modernist circles but experienced profound disappointment in its outcomes. Estate is a slim, compressed novel presented as a letter from Caroline to a paramour who also sees two other women. Caroline's letter moves in free-associative strands about her children, her separated husband, and shifting thoughts, aiming to understand how she became someone who would write and behave in ways she deeply disapproved.

Read at The New Yorker