Delmore Schwartz and James Laughlin Selected Letters

Phillips, Robert (editor)

ISBN 10: 0393034712 / ISBN 13: 9780393034714

Published by Norton, New York, 1993

About this Item

This epistolary duet--acerbic, witty, affectionate--is a work of literature itself. 382 pages.; 5 1/2 x 8 3/4" Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 13476

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Delmore Schwartz and James Laughlin Selected Letters
• Publisher: Norton, New York
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393034712
• ISBN 13: 9780393034714
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Essays

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) was born and raised in Brooklyn. One of America’s greatest poets and short-story writers, Schwartz contributed “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” to the first issue of Partisan Review in 1937. Schwartz taught at Syracuse, Princeton, and Kenyon College, and received the Bollingen Prize in 1959. After a difficult period of alchoholism and depression, he died of a heart attack in 1966.