Anyone who is what Sylvia Plath called herself—a "Smith-addict"—will find [Me Again: Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith] completely absorbing….

The final item in this collection—the radio play—at first appears to be a hoax, a poetry reading masquerading as drama. Gradually, however, it transpires that the Interviewer is Death, the author's "earliest love." From then on I was spellbound. One speech begins, "There is little laughter where you are going and no warmth." It reads like a translation from Rilke. A few moments such as this fully compensate for a prevailing defect that is signaled to us by the very title of the book.

Elizabeth Lutyens said that Miss Smith adopted a "deliberate 'childish' manner," and added with some asperity, "Who in hell wants 'innocence' from an adult—or a child?" Innocence is the opposite of guilt and is commendable in a person...