Double lives
Subtitle: American writers' friendships
By: Richard Lingeman.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
Subjects: Authors, American -- Friends and associates.; Authors, American -- Biography.; Friendship -- United States.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "In Double Lives, Lingeman explores friendships that span the centuries, straddle both coasts, and take in every gender combination. Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were co-curmudgeons who shared a sense of humor and a deep streak of generosity. Willa Cather had the great good fortune to encounter the older Yankee writer Sarah Orne Jewett at the precise moment when Cather was ready to embrace her own professional and sexual identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway met in Paris while both were in their twenties, became fast friends for the worst reasons (Fitzgerald needed heroes, Hemingway admirers), and spent the next fifteen years disappointing each other.

As Lingeman so deftly shows, this trajectory is all too common: the seesaw of fortune has challenged many of these rich and volatile friendships." "Double Lives is that rare literary treat - a melding of life and letters that is at once brilliantly revealing and absolutely irresistible. In capturing the heartbeat and heartbreak of our most fascinating writerly relationships. Lingeman has fashioned a sparkling, multifaceted gem."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.