Table of Contents
Introduction David Friend vii
One Vanity Fair Contrarian Fondly Recalls Another
Dorothy Parker Christopher Hitchens 3
On Poets
W. H. Auden Joseph Brodsky 13
E. E. Cummings Susan Cheever 29
Marianne Moore Elizabeth Bishop 35
On Literary Lions
Eudora Welty Willie Morris 61
Reynolds Price Anne Tyler 73
Saul Bellow Martin Amis 77
Jack Kerouac James Wolcott 82
Truman Capote Sam Kashner 89
Norman Mailer Patricia Bosworth 104
Ernest Hemingway A. Scott Berg 116
Tom Wolfe Michael Lewis 125
Distant Shores
Paul Bowles Jay McInerney 131
Gabriel García Márquez Paul Elie 162
Primo Levi James Atlas 173
Naguib Mahfouz Christopher Dickey 186
Salman Rushdie Martin Amis 196
Short Takes
Willa Cather Truman Capote 205
James Baldwin Jacqueline Woodson 208
Roger Straus Tom Wolfe 210
Ward Just David Halberstam 212
Toni Morrison John Leonard 214
Ishmael Beah Dave Eggers 215
Robert Harris Nick Hornby 216
Judy Blume Meg Wolitzer 218
Wole Soyinka Nadine Gordimer 219
Sonny Mehta Dave Eggers 220
Christopher Hitchens Salman Rushdie 222
A Family Affair
Joan Didion Lili Anolik 229
John Gregory Dunne Dominick Dunne 243
Dominick Dunne Mike Hogan 252
Behind the Best-Sellers
Josephine Tey Francis Wheen 271
Grace Metalious Michael Callahan 277
Mary McCarthy Laura Jacobs 292
Jacqueline Susann Amy Fine Collins 304
Cormac McCarthy Richard B. Woodward 327
Stieg Larsson Christopher Hitchens 334
James Patterson Todd S. Purdum 339
Donna Tartt Evgenia Peretz 348
Memoir
Bosom Buddies Laura Z. Hobson 359
His Jewish Question Arthur Miller 366
Darkness Visible William Styron 371
A Final Tale
Kay Thompson Marie Brenner 395
Acknowledgments 413
The Writers 414