Corresponding Lives

<p>An influential New York salon host and perpetual seeker of meaning Mabel Dodge entered psychoanalysis in 1916 with A.A. Brill the first American psychoanalyst continuing until she moved to New Mexico in December 1917. In Taos she met Antonio Luhan the Pueblo Indian who became her fourth husband in 1923 a radical union that forever altered her turbulent life. </p><p>From the beginning of her analysis until 1944 Mabel wrote to Brill and he replied yielding 122 letters. No other such extensive elaborate written conversations exist between patient and analyst. This book presents a narrative organized around these letters featuring the turmoil in Mabel's relationships with others most notably D. H. Lawrence as well as her extraordinarily candid memoirs both published and unpublished inspired by Brill's fierce insistence upon constructive outlets. In her correspondence as in life Mabel was despairing insightful insecure and talented reporting to Brill her emotional states seeking his advice. With warmth and frankness he offered opinions affection and interpretations. </p>