Twain and Howells On Each Other
This is the story of a friendship that helped build American literature. Mark Twain's memoir of William Dean Howells traces a 44-year relationship that began in 1870 and endured through financial collapse, family tragedy, professional rivalry, and the isolated heights of literary fame. Howells was the steady one: the Atlantic editor who believed in a rough-edged Western humorist when Boston's literary establishment dismissed him, the friend who stayed when creditors and fair-weather admirers fled. Twain writes with characteristic wit and surprising tenderness about what it meant to have such a witness to a life - not just a colleague, but someone who saw him clearly and remained. The book captures something universal about the rare friendships that sustain us through our worst years, and the particular loneliness of being a public figure who few truly know.
X-Ray
