James Laughlin, New Directions, and the remaking of Ezra Pound
By: Gregory Barnhisel.
Contributors: New Directions Publishing Corp.
Series: Studies in print culture and the history of the book
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Amherst
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972 -- Relations with publishers.; Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972 -- Friends and associates.; Laughlin, James, 1914-; Literature publishing -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Publishers and publishing -- United States -- Biography.; Americans -- Italy -- History -- 20th century.; Poets, American -- 20th century -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "Although James Laughlin (1914-1997) came from one of Pittsburgh's leading steel-making families, his passions were literary rather than industrial - he wanted to be a poet. Laughlin was a freshman at Harvard when he traveled to Rapallo, Italy, in 1933 to meet Ezra Pound (1885-1972). and he returned the following year to enroll in the poet's "Ezuversity." Pound dismissed Laughlin's poetic talents, advising the wealthy young man to make himself over into a publisher. Laughlin did just that, founding New Directions in 1936." "Drawing on a wide range of sources - including interviews with Laughlin and other New Directions staffers and published materials from numerous literary archives - Gregory Barnhisel tells the story of the personal and professional relationship between one of the twentieth century's most controversial writers and his loyal and innovative American publisher - a relationship that eventually helped remake literary history and continues to shape our understanding of modernism itself."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-261) and index.
Table of contents: title: Pound and the publishing industry; title: Fighting the "enemy" : the birth of New Directions; title: The objective recognition of value : the Bollingen Award; title: Prying apart poetry and politics; title: The Pound era.