"Literchoor Is My Beat"

A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Writing & Publishing, Publishing, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book "Literchoor Is My Beat" by Ian S. MacNiven, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ian S. MacNiven ISBN: 9780374712433
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: November 18, 2014
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Ian S. MacNiven
ISBN: 9780374712433
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: November 18, 2014
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

A biography—thoughtful and playful—of the man who founded New Directions and transformed American publishing

James Laughlin—poet, publisher, world-class skier—was the man behind some of the most daring, revolutionary works in verse and prose of the twentieth century. As the founder of New Directions, he published Ezra Pound's The Cantos and William Carlos Williams's Paterson; he brought Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges to an American audience. Throughout his life, this tall, charismatic intellectual, athlete, and entrepreneur preferred to stay hidden. But no longer—in "Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions, Ian S. MacNiven has given us a sensitive and revealing portrait of this visionary and the understory of the last century of American letters.
Laughlin—or J, as MacNiven calls him—emerges as an impressive and complex figure: energetic, idealistic, and hardworking, but also plagued by doubts—not about his ability to identify and nurture talent but about his own worth as a writer. Haunted by his father's struggles with bipolar disorder, J threw himself into a flurry of activity, pulling together the first New Directions anthology before he'd graduated from Harvard and purchasing and managing a ski resort in Utah.
MacNiven's portrait is comprehensive and vital, spiced with Ezra Pound's eccentric letters, J's romantic foibles, and anecdotes from a seat-of-your-pants era of publishing now gone by. A story about the struggle to publish only the best, it is itself an example of literary biography at its finest.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A biography—thoughtful and playful—of the man who founded New Directions and transformed American publishing

James Laughlin—poet, publisher, world-class skier—was the man behind some of the most daring, revolutionary works in verse and prose of the twentieth century. As the founder of New Directions, he published Ezra Pound's The Cantos and William Carlos Williams's Paterson; he brought Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges to an American audience. Throughout his life, this tall, charismatic intellectual, athlete, and entrepreneur preferred to stay hidden. But no longer—in "Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions, Ian S. MacNiven has given us a sensitive and revealing portrait of this visionary and the understory of the last century of American letters.
Laughlin—or J, as MacNiven calls him—emerges as an impressive and complex figure: energetic, idealistic, and hardworking, but also plagued by doubts—not about his ability to identify and nurture talent but about his own worth as a writer. Haunted by his father's struggles with bipolar disorder, J threw himself into a flurry of activity, pulling together the first New Directions anthology before he'd graduated from Harvard and purchasing and managing a ski resort in Utah.
MacNiven's portrait is comprehensive and vital, spiced with Ezra Pound's eccentric letters, J's romantic foibles, and anecdotes from a seat-of-your-pants era of publishing now gone by. A story about the struggle to publish only the best, it is itself an example of literary biography at its finest.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book The Story of My Purity by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book The Mamba Mentality by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book Fieldwork by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book How to Read a Novelist by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book Starstruck by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book Three Daughters by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book The Brothers by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book The Bees by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book The Best Bad Things by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book The Odd Woman and the City by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book Gutshot by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book Nothing to Declare by Ian S. MacNiven
Cover of the book In Good Hands by Ian S. MacNiven
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy