Sincerely, Willis Wayde

by John P. Marquand

Sincerely, Willis Wayde is a beautifully executed, full-length portrait of an American businessman of our time, a portrait that is at once realistic, compassionate and gently satirical. The lives of men like Willis Wayde who are successful in trade or politics are inevitably involved with a series of compromises. No other American author could so astutely delineate the strains and rewards of the decisions such men must make.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

511 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1955

About the author

Pulitzer Prize for Novel in 1938 for The Late George Apley

John Phillips Marquand (November 10, 1893 – July 16, 1960) was an American writer. Originally best known for his Mr. Moto spy stories, he achieved popular success and critical respect for his satirical novels, winning a Pulitzer Prize for The Late George Apley in 1938. One of his abiding themes was the confining nature of life in America's upper class and among those who aspired to join it. Marquand treated those whose lives were bound by these unwritten codes with a characteristic mix of respect and satire.

By the mid-1930s he was a prolific and successful writer of fiction for slick magazines like the Saturday Evening Post. Some of these short stories were of an historical nature as had been Marquand's first two novels (The Unspeakable Gentleman and The Black Cargo). These would later be characterized by Marquand as “costume fiction”, of which he stated that an author “can only approximate (his characters) provided he has been steeped in the (relevant) tradition”. Marquand had abandoned “costume fiction” by the mid-1930s.

In the late-1930s, Marquand began producing a series of novels on the dilemmas of class, most centered on New England. The first of these, The Late George Apley (1937), a satire of Boston's upper class, won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1938. Other Marquand novels exploring New England and class themes include Wickford Point (1939), H.M. Pulham, Esquire (1941), and Point of No Return (1949). The last is especially notable for its satirical portrayal of Harvard anthropologist W. Lloyd Warner, whose Yankee City study attempted (and in Marquand's view, dismally failed) to describe and analyze the manners and mores of Marquand's Newburyport

Reviews

[Shannon Dyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

An easy to read book. I enjoyed the window into life in the 1920s into the early 1950s, and I liked the insight of the business world at the the time. The book stressed an importance of keeping life long personal and business connections. "Exactly what was success, he was wondering. Perhaps it was nothing tangible, but rather a state of mind that made you content within the frame where life had placed you."

[Samuel Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy the work of John Marquand and I’m pretty close to reading almost everything that he wrote. With that being said, this is probably my least favorite of his novels. The first 100 pages of this were great. An easy and smooth read, typical of his prose, with seemingly benign expressions that resonated with me.

“It made Willie feel old because he was beginning to march in the procession of generations”

However, each succeeding 100 pages was worse than the passage that proceeded it. I wanted this to be a love story about the smart kid with real world intelligence and the interesting, sometimes rebellious, bosses daughter, but it sort of just turned into a depressing story about jobs leaving small town America.

I’m still going to read the last few Marquand novels that I have on my bookshelf. I’m not sure why his work isn’t widely available today. He was one of the more popular novelists of his day with a Pulitzer to boot.

I’ll close with this quotation that is surprisingly current even thought it was written 70 years ago:

“A decadent capitalistic system inevitably turned to nazism as a last resort.”

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intensity and endless drama of our current period, takes me back to the calmer world of John P. Marquand, one of my favorite fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century.

Unfortunately this isn't one of his better works. It does include Marquand's classic lampooning of eastern blue bloods, along with his ability to display such antics in the omniscient thoughts of the central character. But for me anyway, it doesn't have the same resonance and impact of his other novels.

Additionally, it also unfortunately hasn't aged well. It was hard to overlook the racist expression of a supporting character (and repeated later by the central one, Willis Wayde). So too are the chauvinist thoughts of Willis towards all females, particularly those of his wife Sylvia (i.e. chapter 26: "No wife, no matter how loyal and lovely she might be, ever seemed to be able to the principles of management -- but then after all why would she?"). Arguably, much of Marquand's writing included such bromides, though with this story I found it even more obvious than I recall previously.

For those new to his writing, I instead recommend "The Late George Apley" (for which he won the Pulitzer) and "H.M. Pulham, Esquire, which is a personal favorite.

[Brian Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great companion read to “Arrowsmith” and I loved the first third, but the book is very 1950’s and as Willis grows up its views get a lot more dated. It’s hard to imagine a guy who loves his wife so much caring so little for her feelings and opinions. Or believing lines like, “No wife, no matter how loyal and lovely she might be, ever seemed to be able to grasp the principles of corporation management. But, after all, why should she?”

I could live with it being a time capsule, but there is essentially zero conflict in the entire book, and when I think of something like “The Brothers Ashkenazi” which also had to do with a self-made industrialist and was vastly superior, the rating is gonna suffer. I mean, it’s about business from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, and the amount that’s said about the depression or WWII couldn’t fill a paragraph. That being said, I have a couple other Marquand books on the shelf and still plan to get to them sometime.

[Rex Libris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very different from his traditional corpus, the Mr. Moto spy novels. In this book, Marquand examines the life a typical, modern business executive. Willis Wayde is successful by most measures, such as wealth, marriage, business acumen, and overall success. However, those are the only measures he understands as measures of success and personal worth and integrity. Wayde thinks that because he has made long-time acquaintances wealthier, he has done them right. As a result he cannot understand their rejection of him when he breaks a promise to them that seals the deal that makes them wealthy. He simply does not understand that integrity might be more than just a standard of living.

[Jessica – Books, Books, and Japan! · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this vintage read and am so glad I picked it up. A lovely story about business and life in the latter part of the first half of the 1900s. The book is also a lesson in life and a reminder that people must make tough choices if they wish to rise up in this world. The book can be a tad slow at times, but overall, it’s a fascinating story.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure about this book...

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I did enjoy it in a way... kind of walking through the years peeking in on different moments of these people's lives, however it seemed to go on and on and on. And I felt like I kept waiting for it to get to the point. And then, it ended. Very strangely, in my opinion. Definitely not something I would re-read.

[Aria]

Dnf p. 38. Right now it's just too slow moving for me. It's not bad necessarily, although I've only read so much of it. Were I in a diff. state of mind I'd have kept on w/ it a while longer. I jumped forward a bit & didn't find anything to keep me at the book, so I'm moving on.

[Mike Zickar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable and important novel by one of America's best and first chroniclers of white-collar managerialism.

Classic Marquand exploring issues of class and social mobility, with deep insight into relationships and business.

I'm not sure why Marquand seems to be forgotten.

[Samantha Glasser]

This book was on the New York Times best-seller list.

[Margaret Burrell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea what the point of this book is. It’s essentially a biography of a self-obsessed businessman, without an ending. It’s interminably long and, except for Henry Harcourt and Selwyn, is full of irritating or highly slappable characters - Sylvia and Bess in particular. There doesn’t even seem to be a moral to the story. Sorry, but I found this really tedious and I only kept reading because I assumed that, at some point, something interesting would happen.