Dearest Annie, You Wanted a Report on Berkson’s Class: Letters from Frances LeFevre to Anne Waldman

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Edited by Lisa Birman with an introduction by Bill Berkson and afterword by Anne Waldman. Frances LeFevre’s reports on Bill Berkson’s poetry class at the New School, sent to her daughter Anne Waldman, then an undergraduate at Bennington. These lively letters detail Berkson’s assignments and mention such fellow classmates as Bernadette Mayer, Hannah Weiner, and Peter Schjeldahl. Not to mention the occasional shopping trip to S. Klein.

Do we have another such mother/daughter correspondence anywhere else in the world, ever? It’s wonderful stuff, –Eileen Myles

I read Dearest Annie in one sitting and immediately wished it were longer.–Charles North