Correspondence of Gilbert Highet and Helen MacInnes with Classical Scholars and Other Individuals

Gilbert Highet and Helen MacInnes—one, an eminent classical scholar, the other, a writer of espionage novels—figured prominently in America’s cultural pantheon of the mid-twentieth century. This paper examines correspondence of this celebrated couple with classical scholars and other individuals inside and outside academia, some of them distinguished. They include Cyril Bailey, Maurice Bowra, Edmund Wilson, Grayson Kirk, Gilbert Murray, Rolfe Humphries, Ruth Jaeger, Janice Gorn, Bernard Weisberger, Joseph Fontenrose, John Lindsay, and Steele Commager. The correspondence, dealing with academic and extra-academic matters, has been reproduced word for word, with explanatory footnotes as appropriate.