James Laughlin was first introduced to Henry Miller's writing in 1934 when he was studying with Ezra Pound in Rapallo, Italy. As Laughlin remembers it, one day Pound tossed a book at him across the table at which they were sitting, saying, "Waal Jas, here's a dirty book that's really good. You'd better read that if your morals can stand it". Laughlin was so impressed with the book, Tropic of Cancer, that he promptly initiated a correspondence with Miller which soon turned into a publisher/author relationship when Laughlin, at Pound's urging, founded New Directions in 1936. Ever mercurial in temperament, an idealist who struggled financially to meet his material needs, Miller relied on his publisher Laughlin's generosity and expert editorial advice for decades. Although Miller's letters, sometimes quite teasingly, decried the conservatism of American book publishing, Miller nevertheless trusted Laughlin with intimate details about his work and personal life. The resulting correspondence, spanning from 1935 to shortly before Miller's death in 1980, is a remarkable, uncensored record of the ideas and intentions that spawned many of Miller's most provocative and memorable literary endeavors. Henry Miller and James Laughlin: Selected Letters is a powerful, sometimes poignant and often startling documentation of the complex friendship forged through the written word among two of the twentieth century's most influential figures in the world of literature and publishing.
