The Luck of Friendship: The Letters of Tennessee Williams and James Laughlin

Description

The chronicle of Tennessee Williams and James Laughlin’s unlikely yet enduring literary and personal relationship. In December 1942, two guests at a Lincoln Kirstein mixer bonded over their shared love of Hart Crane’s poetry. One of them was James Laughlin, the founder of a small publishing company called New Directions, which he had begun only seven years earlier as a sophomore at Harvard. The other was a young playwright named Thomas Lanier Williams, or "Tennessee," as he had just started to call himself. A little more than a week after that first encounter, Tennessee sent a letter to Jay—as he always addressed Laughlin in writing— expressing a desire to get together for an informal discussion of some of Tennessee’s poetry. "I promise you it would be extremely simple," he wrote, "and we would inevitably part on good terms even if you advised me to devote myself exclusively to the theatre for the rest of my life." So began a deep friendship that would last for forty-one years, through critical acclaim and rejection, commercial success and failure, manic highs, bouts of depression, and serious and not-so-serious liaisons. Williams called Laughlin his "literary conscience," and New Directions serves to this day as Williams’s publisher, not only for The Glass Menagerie and his other celebrated plays but for his highly acclaimed novels, short stories, and volumes of poetry as well. Their story provides a window into the literary history of the mid-twentieth century and reveals the struggles of a great artist, supported in his endeavors by the publisher he considered a true friend.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Similar books

• 

  Good Luck with That

  By Kristan Higgins

  The "New York Times"-bestselling author tells the story of two friends who make a promise to face their deepest hopes and greatest fears by agreeing to stop waiting to lose weight and start living now.

• 

  Best Friends, Worst Luck

  By Mary Hooper

  These light-hearted stories by one of the most popular contemporary writers for girls were met with great acclaim when they were first published.

• 

  Jewish Luck: A True Story of Friendship, Deception, and Risky Business

  By Leslie Levine Adler, Meryll Levine Page

  Jewish Luck recounts the intertwined stories of two women who-in their struggles against the anti-Semitism and patriarchy of the Soviet regime and the rebranded "New" Russia-succeed by creating their own luck.

• 

  Classic Trolls Friendship Notes

  Classic Trolls Friendship Notes

• 

  Amelia Bedelia Tries Her Luck

  By Herman Parish

  What a lucky day! Amelia Bedelia turns bad luck into good luck in this fun story about friendship.

• 

  Patti's Luck

  By Susan Saunders

  The Sleepover Friends think it's just a joke when Kate casts a bad luck "spell" on Patti, until some really unlucky things start happening whenever Patti is around.

• 

  The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

  By Wes Moore

  Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

• 

  Love & Luck

  By Jenna Evans Welch

  A New York Times bestseller From the author of the New York Times bestselling Love & Gelato comes a heartwarming tale of a road trip through Ireland filled with love, adventure, and the true meaning behind the word family.

• 

  GOOD LUCK FRIENDS

  By JESSICA SANDRA TOPPO, SUPRIYA.C.S.K.

  Friendship A bond of loyalty and Happiness Friends With whom we enjoy a lot in childhood Best friends With whom you share each secret of your life Best friends forever Is the promise which we give to the idiots out there that we'll ...

• 

  The Four Loves

  By C. S. Lewis

  No less than that: but also no more.” In The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis explores the four kinds of human love in one of his most famous works of nonfiction.