H.G. Wells And Rebecca West: Gordon N. Ray

From the spring of 1913 to the autumn of 1923, Rebecca West was the woman in Wells' life. He was forty-six; she was twenty and already showing literary promise toward a notable career. Their relationship was not public and Wells maintained his home life with his wife Jane, who was fully aware of the liaison while Rebecca existed in harassing, isolated and unhappy conditions. Over 800 of Wells' letters to Rebecca survive, although he destroyed all but five of hers. Rebecca presented the letters to the Beinecke Library at Yale University with the proviso that they should not be accessible until after her death. But the publication of inadequate and incorrect accounts of her life at this period caused her to change her mind and the letters were made accessible to author Gordon Ray. His record makes a fascinating, stimulating and often profoundly moving story.