Airmail

AIRMAIL
THE LETTERS OF ROBERT BLY AND TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER

Edited by Thomas R. Smith

Airmail provides a rare portrait of two artists who have become integral to each other’s particular genius and who are essential contributors to global literature. Across their correspondence, Bly and Tranströmer are profoundly engaged with each other and with the larger world: the Vietnam War, European and American elections, and the struggles of affording a life as a writer. Airmail also illuminates the work of translation, as each begins translating the other’s poetry. Their collaboration quickly turned into a friendship that has lasted fifty years. Airmail collects more than 290 letters, written from 1964 until 1990, when Tranströmer suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. This publication marks the first time letters by Bly and Tranströmer have been made available in the United States, and this edition includes poetry and translations by both writers that have never before been published.