Letters

Marshall McLuhan was one of the best-known figures of the 1960s, acclaimed for his contribution to the understanding of modern media and communications, and the involuntary founder of a cult. The early letters in this collection offer a fascinating background to his intellectual growth. The bulk of them contain much preliminary discussion of ideas that later became the subject of the books which established his reputation as a communications expert: The Gutenburg Galaxy: the Making of Typographic Man (1962), and Understanding Media(1964). Revered as an oracle' andsage' by his followers and admirers, McLuhan's correspondents included some of the interesting names of the past few decades including Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, Pierre Trudeau, and Woody Allen. Assembled from a large collection, these letters display a sharp intelligence at work, and offer insight into a man whose writings have helped shape our understanding of modern communications.