Customer Reviews

A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists

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Everything the editorial reviews say about "A Chance Meeting" is all true. Rachel Cohen has placed 30 major American cultural figures--writers and artists--in 36 intertwined encounters ranging more than a century (1854-1967) that reads like a cross of a gossipy letter home (back when we did that) and carefully thought-out commentary and conjecture.

This book is not only an informative, fun, and thought-provoking read--for artists and writers, it is a well of companionship. Have you ever been lonely in your studio or study as you created? Have you ever been broke, searching for that next fellowship or contract? Have you ever been inspired by a chance meeting of a fellow/sister artist and writer? Did you ever wonder what pleasures and problems fame might bring? These and many other questions are answered in these rich encounters.

Authors and artists I've studied are presented here as human beings working to remain human while they create their work. This is a tremendous guidebook not only for lovers of cultural history, but also for current makers of culture.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

Much like her narrative, Cohen's eyes draw the reader into her own world from the surface of her dustjacket. And what is that world? A world of intimiate connections expressed through the smallest of gestures and the shortest of moments. It is obvious from reading A Chance Meeting that Cohen has entwined herself with each and every one of her subjects to become their close friend, despite being decades away from meeting them in person. That doesn't stop her, however, from creating a wonderful narrative of shared moments and chance meetings between various artists of the early 20th Century. Whether those actors or authors managed to sustain a relationship for years, or merely sense each other from across the room, doesn't matter as Cohen has an art for deeply plumbing each character's soul to see the impact that such meetings have upon their decisions. Not every one is moved by such small encounters as an introduction, but Cohen pieces together a rich tapestry of influential artists, each of which motivated another through such moments, and does a fine job of it. Finally, one gets to see the authors completely naked, instead of through the rough hewn lens of their work.