The Whalestoe Letters: From House of Leaves

Between 1982 and 1989, Pelafina H. Lièvre sent her son, Johnny Truant, a series of letters from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a psychiatric facility in Ohio where she spent the final years of her life. Beautiful, heartfelt, and tragic, this correspondence reveals the powerful and deeply moving relationship between a brilliant though mentally ill mother and the precocious, gifted young son she never ceases to love. Originally contained within the monumental House of Leaves, this collection stands alone as a stunning portrait of mother and child. It is presented here along with a foreword by Walden D. Wyhrta and eleven previously unavailable letters. Robert Kelly From the madhouse, Johny Truant's mother writes some of the most tender, chilling, faux-psychotic writing I've eer read. This dangerous, lucid, confused but very eloquent lady...is playful, apologetic, crazed, paranoid, self-abasing, cunning--a tigress with a gift for gab. — The New York Times Book Review.

Between 1982 and 1989, Pelafina H. Lièvre sent her son, Johnny Truant, a series of letters from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a psychiatric facility in Ohio where she spent the final years of her life. Beautiful, heartfelt, and tragic, this correspondence reveals the powerful and deeply moving relationship between a brilliant though mentally ill mother and the precocious, gifted young son she never ceases to love.

Originally contained within the monumental House of Leaves, this collection stands alone as a stunning portrait of mother and child. It is presented here along with a foreword by Walden D. Wyhrta and eleven previously unavailable letters.

Robert Kelly

From the madhouse, Johny Truant's mother writes some of the most tender, chilling, faux-psychotic writing I've eer read. This dangerous, lucid, confused but very eloquent lady...is playful, apologetic, crazed, paranoid, self-abasing, cunning--a tigress with a gift for gab. — The New York Times Book Review

Between 1982 and 1989 Pelafina Lievre sent her son, Johnny Truant, a series of letters from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a psychiatric hospital in Ohio where she spent the final years of her life. Beautiful, heartfelt, and poetic, these letters bring to light the powerful and deeply influential relationship between a brilliant though mentally ill mother and her precocious, gifted young son. Her mental deterioration is tragic, but the love she expresses throughout is unwavering and profound.Originally contained in the monumental House of Leaves, this correspondence stands alone as a moving portrait of mother and son. Now, for the first time, it is presented on its own in one elegant volume, along with additional, previously unavailable material. xvii, 83 p. ; 21 cm Originally contained in appendix II-E of House of leaves; also includes 5 additional letters Pelafina H. Lièvre is a fictional character in the novel