Author Description

DELMORE SCHWARTZ: from his glorification as the golden boy of the American literary scene to his untimely death in 1966, alone and destitute. JAMES LAUGHLIN: founder of New Directions, publisher and editor of the modernists. This collection chronicles a correspondence that began with the poet's first unsolicited submission to New Directions in 1937, and continued throughout the tempestuous friendship that lasted until the poet's death. The relationship that developed between them was both literary, steeped in their own work and that of their contemporaries, and personal: gifted storytellers, they delighted each other with factual and fictional observations. The two remained friends and colleagues until the mental illness that eventually claimed him began to destroy Schwartz's ability to trust even those closest to him. Here follows the highs and lows of a relationship between two extraordinary personalities.