Synopses & Reviews
A chance meeting in the University of North Carolina campus library in 1944 began a decades-long friendship and sixty-year correspondence. Donald Justice (1925and#8211;2004) and Richard Stern (1928and#8211;2013) would go on to become, respectively, the Pulitzer Prizeand#8211;winning poet and the acclaimed novelist.
A Critical Friendship showcases a selection of theirand#160;letters andand#160;postcards from the first fifteen years of their correspondence, representing the formative period in both writersand#8217; careers. It includes some of Justiceand#8217;s unpublished poetry and early drafts of later published poems as well as some early, never-before-published poetry by Stern.
A Critical Friendship is the story of two writers inventing themselves, beginning with the earliest extant letters and ending with those just following their first major publications, Justiceand#8217;s poetry collection The Summer Anniversaries and Sternand#8217;s novel Golk. These letters highlight their willingness to give and take criticism and document the birth of two distinct and important American literary lives. The letters similarly document the influence of teachers, friends, and contemporaries, including Saul Bellow, John Berryman, Edgar Bowers, Robert Lowell, Norman Mailer, Allen Tate, Peter Hillsman Taylor, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and Yvor Winters, all of whom feature in the pair's conversations. In a broader context, their correspondence sheds light on the development of the mid-twentieth-century American literary scene.
Synopsis
For the first time in one volume, Hamill presents five great books that demonstrate Liebling's extraordinary vitality, humor, and versatility as a writer.
Synopsis
One of the most gifted American journalists of the twentieth century, A. J. Liebling learned his craft as a newspaper reporter before joining
The New Yorker in 1935. This volume collects five books that demonstrate his extraordinary vitality and versatility as a writer.
Named the best sports book of all time by Sports Illustrated in 2002, The Sweet Science (1956) offers a lively and idiosyncratic portrait of boxing in the early 1950s that encompasses boastful managers, veteran trainers, wily cornermen, and the fighters themselves: Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Archie Moore, "a virtuoso of anachronistic perfection." No one has captured the fierce artistry of the ring like Liebling. "A boxer," he observed, "like a writer, must stand alone." A classic of reporting, The Earl of Louisiana (1961) is a vivid account of Governor Earl Long's bid for reelection after his release from a mental asylum in 1959--and an insightful look at Southern politics during the civil rights era.
The Jollity Building (1962) collects hilarious stories about Manhattan cigar-store owners, night-club promoters, and the scheming "Telephone Booth Indians" of Broadway, as well as a profile of "The Honest Rainmaker," the racing columnist and confidence man extraordinaire Colonel John R. Stingo. An unabashed celebration of the pleasures of unrestrained eating, Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris (1962) is a richly evocative memoir of Liebling's lifelong love for Paris and French food and wine. The Press (1964) brings together the best of Liebling's influential "Wayward Press" pieces, in which he perceptively examined the flaws of American journalism and presciently warned of the dangers of consolidated media ownership. "Freedom of the press," he wrote, "is guaranteed only to those who own one."
Synopsis
For the first time in one volume, Pete Hamill presents five great books that demonstrate A. J. Liebling's extraordinary vitality, humor, and versatility as a writer. Named the best sports book of all time by Sports Illustrated in 2002, The Sweet Science (1956) is a lively and idiosyncratic portrait of boxing in the early 1950s, when Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and Floyd Patterson ruled the ring. A classic of political reporting, The Earl of Louisiana (1961) is a vivid account of Governor Earl Long's bid for reelection after his release from a mental asylum in 1959. The Jollity Building (1962) collects hilarious true-life stories of Manhattan night-club promoters, cigar store owners, and scheming ?Telephone Booth Indians, ? as well as a portrait of ?The Honest Rainmaker, ? the racing columnist and confidence man extraordinaire, Colonel John R. Stingo. Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris (1962) is a richly evocative memoir of Liebling's introduction to Paris and its food and wine as a student in the late 1920s. The Press (1964) brings together the best of Liebling's influential and insightful ?Wayward Press? pieces, in which he established himself as the first great media critic. Together with a 2008 companion Library of America volume, World War II?Writings, this is the essential Liebling.
About the Author
Elizabeth Murphy is an independent scholar, freelance editor, poet, and cofounder and editor of
The Straddler, a journal of arts, politics, and culture.