num_pages: 400
description: Each chapter of this inventive consideration of American culture evokes an actual meeting between American writers and artists, from Henry James and Mathew Brady, to Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, to Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore, to Norman Mailer and Robert Lowell. The accumulation of these pairings draws the reader into the mysterious process by which creativity has been sparked and passed on, from the Civil War through the civil rights movement.
language: English
title: A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists
titlecomplete: A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists
genres: Literature, History, Biography, Essays, Writing, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 139
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Guardian First Book Award
category: Longlist
publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks