Poems: New and Selected
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Laughlin James
Thomas Merton and James Laughton: Selected Letters
 List Price: Price: $27.49 You Save: $7.51 (21%) DescriptionThe remarkable development of Thomas Merton--monk, poet, and social critic--as documented in nearly thirty years of correspondence with his publisher. Thomas Merton may have seemed an unlikely candidate for a best-selling author. Cloistered in a remote Kentucky monastery, Merton struggled as a young man to reconcile the contemplative life he sought as a monk and his very public passion for writing. Publisher James Laughlin saw Merton's talent and played the muse, encouraging him with the poems, essays, and diaries of other writers and publishing nearly everything Merton sent in return. Ironically, the very society Merton rejected upon entering the monastery embraced his work, bringing him publishing success only dreamed of by more eager authors. Soon Merton discovered he had a podium, a voice, and a responsibility that weighed as heavily on him as his previous quest for silence. Laughlin's encouragement remained constant throughout, as political ally, publishing adviser, and supporting friend. Nearly thirty years of rich correspondence documents this strong literary and personal relationship and traces the remarkable development of Merton's vision: from an early focus on matters internal and religious, to a tremendous world view encompassing issues of race, politics, war, and the spiritual decay of modern society.Customer ReviewsThe human giantI have a friend who says that reading Thomas Merton always makes her feel a little taller. This collection of letters between Thomas Merton and James Laughlin, of New Directions Press, is a good place to begin if you'd like to take a look at the correspondence of one of our most fascinating and prodigious spiritual writers. While their friendship seemed an unlikely one, it grew into a rich exchange of ideas and affection between two men committed to their ideals. Given the way most of us take the role of technology in our lives for granted today, Merton can seem almost quaint in concerns such as this: "The splitting of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." However, this is exactly the kind of sharp, non-sentimental comment that makes me pay attention when Merton is speaking. While the letters sometimes get a little bogged down in the details of publishing, this is a trivial matter, for the wealth of compassion and depth of thought make this an excellent book to delve into again and again. EXCELLENT SELECTION PRESENTING ONE FOURTH OF THE ENTIRE COLLECTION OF THEIR CORRESPONDENCE, WITH GOOD FOOTNOTES AND END MATERIAL but a pretty erroneous introduction by the associate professor of American Thought out of California. As one who feels Father Louis's death was no accident, it is as irritating as hearing unquestioned assurances of Oswald's guilt, despite other findings which even convinced the US Senate to doubt. In Father Louis's case, during the year in which at least three American prophets of peace and social justice were killed, suspicious circumstances surround his death, including the description of his wounds, and the destruction of evidence, including the unusual immediate uprooting of the garden around the bungalow he was staying in, to remove any footprint evidence. His body was immediately taken by the US military, transported with dead US soldiers from Vietnam and Laos and buried in a closed casket at his monastery in Kentucky, unlike his brother monks who were buried in bedsheets and shrouds. Let us consider this seriously rather than rushing to judgment once more. Other points in the introduction leave scholars of Merton and Laughlin scratching our heads, but it is very easy to skip over the introduction and jump right into the brilliant and refreshing living waters of the revealing letters themselves. Unlike other collections of Father M. Louis's private correspondence, I do not feel as guilty here reading his mail, somehow. In fact it is fascinating reading his exchanges with Mr. Laughlin, the very gifted founder of New Directions, his original publisher. We can really see the ins and outs of the publishing world of fifty years ago. Mr. Laughlin remained a kind and a generous and a self-sacrificing human being despite the cut-throat business, and a good friend of Tom's at all times. For these aspects alone it's worthwhile reading. Publishing is no easier now within our tightly controlled conglomerate corporate media world. But who's reading anymore, besides you and me? I can highly recommend this book to any student of the development of Merton's thought and his growing confidence as a writer, a moral theologian and a firmly courageous prophet for peace and justice, silenced far too soon, but clearly for a purpose, in that hellish year of 1968 in which we lost so many great and holy men. I also strongly recommend to any tentative writer and great soul other collections of Father M. Louis's correspondence concerning the profession and vocation of writing, such as Echoing Silence and of course Courage for Truth, which includes a more comprehensive collection of his correspondence from a full spectrum of Catholic authors, from Evelyn Waugh to Father Ernesto Cardenal, Merton's former novice and fellow poet. Merton only gets better with age, and as much as we need his living voice to guide us now in this present time of imperial warfare, we may yet gratefully receive now his long silenced and stilled words, and apply them prayerfully and prophetically with courage for truth to our own troubled times.
The Love Poems of James Laughlin
 List Price: Price: $7.95 DescriptionAs a poet, the late James Laughlin was perhaps best known for his love lyrics. Marjorie Perloff wrote: "Who else...writes such bittersweet, ironic,. rueful, erotic, tough-minded, witty love poems, poems that run the gamut from ecstasy to loss?" In "Parnassus," Jonathan Williams asks "Did the Roman masters (Horace, Catullus, Propertius, Martial, Ovid), leave as many excellent poems amongst the whole lot of them, as [James Laughlin] did on his own?" Guy Davenports notes that Laughlin's poems are "the wittiest and sexiest...of our time." This small paperbook of his finest love poems is a perfect memorial to one of the 20th century's most important men of letters."Customer ReviewsAccess and beautyI found these poems to be beautiful. This title shouldn't be overlooked for Valentine's day or any romantic occasion... A Great American Poet James Laughlin was no less than a great American poet. Sometimes overlooked because of those he published, (a suggestion from Ezra Pound, while he attended the Ezuversity in Italy) William Carlos Williams helped devise his own meter and voice. What we have is truly an American voice that can be compared to the great Roman poet Catullus. This collection is some of his finer poetry, and quite a pleasure to read. A Great American Poet James Laughlin was no less than a great American poet. Sometimes overlooked because of those he published, (a suggestion from Ezra Pound, while he attended the Ezuversity in Italy) William Carlos Williams helped devise his own meter and voice. What we have is truly an American voice that can be compared to the great Roman poet Catullus. This collection is some of his finer poetry, and quite a pleasure to read. The Love of Words Poor James Laughlin---one of America's most resourceful and innovative publishers never made it past lacklustre and competent as poet. Laughlin's _New Directions_ gave us Nabokov's first novel and book of critical essays, and Henry Miller's ruminations, and a wealth of writers who would have otherwise been lost. Laughlin himself was always an aspiring writer; many of the poems in this collection prove that he wasn't too far off the mark---that is, bits and pieces of otherwise run-of-the-mill poesy have a certain wonderful spark, a gleam of genius that suggests, had his circumstances (family wealth and a sense of duty) been different, that he might have proved remarkable. But they're not. These poems have much of Laughlin's grace in them---elegant but somehow tame and somewhat bland. When young, Laughlin visited Gertrude Stein in Paris. Stein told him that his talents lay elsewhere, that he could help out the written word better by helping other writers, which Laughlin, dutifully and gracefully, did. He never gave up on writing. I don't see why he should have---if anything, his poems might seem pale because they are surrounded in _New Directions_'s catalog by so much genius. I hope that Laughlin was pleased by the good company.
Christmas Poems (New Directions Paperbook)
 List Price: Price: $4.10 You Save: $7.85 (66%) DescriptionAwake the voice! Awake the string!Dark and dull night fly hence away, And give the honor of this day That sees December turned to May. —William Herrick Christmas Poems is a pleasing and diverse selection of classic holiday poems that goes all the way back to an eclogue of Virgil, moves along to a wide range of authors such as Chaucer, Herbert, Longfellow, Dickinson, Paul Dunbar, Rilke, Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, E. E. Cummings, Kenneth Patchen, Thomas Merton, Wallace Stevens, Marie Ponsot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frank O’Hara, Denise Levertov, and Bernadette Mayer. Beautifully designed, this New Directions gem (originally published in the 1940s and reissued in the 1970s) rings with the deep sentiments of the season and just the right splash of holiday cheer. Christmas Poems comes with French flaps and is the perfect size for a stocking stuffer. Christmas Poems was originally edited by Albert M. Hayes and New Directions founder and publisher James Laughlin as A Wreath of Christmas Poems, and published as part of the "Poets of the Year" series in 1942. The collection was updated and revised in 1972, and selections for this newly revised 2008 edition have been chosen by the editorial staff at New Directions.
James Laughlin, New Directions, and the Remaking of Ezra Pound (Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book)
 List Price: Price: $34.95 DescriptionAlthough 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 Press in 1936.For much of the 1930s prior to World War II, Laughlin and Pound were friends, business associates, collaborators, student and teacher, and even at times son and surrogate father. But Laughlin's investment in Pound--and their friendship--was severely tested by Pound's wartime propaganda broadcasts for Italian state radio, his capture and abortive trial for treason, and his thirteen-year stay as a mental patient in St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Following this scandal and disgrace, the reading public no longer wanted to buy Pound's books, and the critical establishment dismissed him as a Fascist crank. Laughlin and New Directions responded by marketing Pound in such a way as to convince consumers that the poet's importance needed to be judged solely on aesthetic grounds, and that his political beliefs were irrelevant to his accomplishments as a pioneering literary artist. With Pound's encouragement, and despite the poet's oft-expressed opposition to the mixture of commerce and art, Laughlin used such marketing tools as advertising, the cultivation of friendly critics, and the development of the trade paperback to enhance Pound's reputation. 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. Customer ReviewsAuthor and his publisherThis carefully researched book reveals the role of Ezra Pound's publisher in massaging his reputation, especially after World War II and the poet's disgrace of being confined in a mental institution. It is not entirely clear what specific qualities the publisher found in his poet. However, this book is a contribution to the now embattled Gutenberg Galaxy, the field of book culture, which is not always they way we simple readers would expect. I spent five years in publishing and found the account very believable.
Remembering William Carlos Williams (New Directions Paperbook Original, Ndp811)
 List Price: Price: $7.95 DescriptionCustomer ReviewsRevisiting Dr. WilliamsDelightful, anecdotal, touching remembrances of the premiere American modernist poet by the premiere American modernist publisher. More conversation than dissertation, the slim book consists of a single light, often rambling but highly readable poem. It's a must-read for any devotee of Williams and provides great insight into the relationship that fostered and nutured the development of New Directions. Also includes Paterson-like snippets of prose as well as Kenneth Rexroth's moving farewell poem to Dr. Williams. Laughlin James News
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