Delmore Schwartz and James Laughlin: Selected Letters [Hardcover]

Delmore Schwartz (Author), James Laughlin (Author), Robert Phillips (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1993

Delmore Schwartz was the golden boy of the American literary scene until his untimeley death in 1966, alone and destitute. James Laughlin was the founder of New Directions, publisher and editor of the Modernists. This collection chronicles a correspondence that began with Schwartz's first unsolicited submission to Laughlin in 1937 and continued throughout the friendship that lasted until the poet's death. The relationship that developed between them was both literary, steeped in their own work and the work 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Collected here are more than 100 letters from poet Schwartz ( In Dreams Begin Responsibilities ) and some 50 replies from Laughlin, poet and founder of New Directions. We follow Schwartz (1913-1966) from his fame at 25 for his first book published by Laughlin, to his final days overwhelmed by mental illness. Laughlin in his letters charts both their professional and their personal relationships. Schwartz constantly advised Laughlin, urging him to publish John Berryman, Eudora Welty and Jean Garrigue. For his part, Laughlin called Schwartz "the American Auden." Their friendship thrived on the passion each felt for good writing and for Laughlin's publishing credo that a book of poetry was "not the same as a bottle of mouthwash." But in his introduction, Phillips ( Kenneth Rexroth and James Laughlin: Selected Letters ) also comments, "There is no doubt that Laughlin was more sinned against than sinning." Schwartz came to blame him for earnings that never equalled what a commercial publisher might have paid, yet he seemed to feel a bottomless need for Laughlin's praise. The letters reveal the making of honest literature at its complicated best; they send us to the valued work of each man.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As the most recent of Norton's collections of letters between New Directions publisher James Laughlin and his best-known poets, this volume contains 151 lively letters from Schwartz to his friend, booster, and sometime employer and 53 from Laughlin to the progressively more money-conscious and irrational Schwartz. A scanty introduction and virtually useless notes leaves the fascinating wunderkind of the 1940s and 1950s an enigma to anyone not already familiar with him.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 382 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393034712
• ISBN-13: 978-0393034714
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,168,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.