The Luck of Friendship: The Letters of Tennessee Williams and James Laughlin

This collection of correspondence between Tennessee Williams and his primary publisher, New Directions founder James Laughlin, provides a remarkable window onto a literary friendship. While the letters, written between December 1942 and October 1982, contain their share of publishing shoptalk, what emerges most strongly is a genuinely close bond. For example, responding to Williams’s claim of physical and nervous exhaustion after completing his play The Rose Tattoo, Laughlin advises: “Don’t think of yourself as a literary figure, and try to see what others see in you. Just go on living your life by your own standards, which are the right ones for you, and write what comes.” The letters document, incidentally, Williams’s wanderlust—Key West and Rome are among his frequent mailing addresses—and relationships with Truman Capote, Elia Kazan, and Carson McCullers, among other famous names mentioned in the letters. But the book’s greatest value lies in capturing the lifelong conversation these two men shared, one that clearly nurtured Williams and helped him continue in the face of professional setbacks. As Williams wrote to Laughlin in 1978, in a letter which sums up the collection, “Very briefly and truly, I want to say this. You’re the greatest friend that I have had in my life, and the most trusted.” [em](Mar.) [/em]

Correction: An earlier version of this review listed an incorrect publisher.