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"Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions
A biography—thoughtful and playful—of the man who founded New Directions and transformed American publishing
James Laughlin—a poet, publisher, world-class skier—was the man behind some of the most daring, revolutionary works in verse and prose of the twentieth century. As the founder of New Directions, he published Ezra Pound’s The Cantos and William Carlos Williams’s Paterson; he brought Herman Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges to an American audience. Throughout his life, this tall, charismatic intellectual, athlete, and entrepreneur preferred to stay hidden. But no longer—in “Literchoor is My Beat”: James Laughlin and New Directions, Ian S. MacNiven has given us a sensitive and revealing portrait of this visionary and the understory of the last century of American letters.
Laughlin—or J, as MacNiven calls him—emerges as an impressive and complex figure: energetic, idealistic, and hardworking, but also plagued by doubts—not about his ability to identify and nurture talent, but about his own worth as a writer. Haunted by his father’s struggles with bipolar disorder, J threw himself into a flurry of activity, pulling together the first New Directions anthology before he’d graduated from Harvard and purchasing and managing a ski resort in Utah.
MacNiven’s portrait is comprehensive and vital, spiced with Ezra Pound’s eccentric letters, J’s romantic foibles, and anecdotes from a seat-of-your-pants era of publishing now gone by. A story about the struggle to publish only the best, it is itself an example of literary biography at its finest.
James Laughlin—a poet, publisher, world-class skier—was the man behind some of the most daring, revolutionary works in verse and prose of the twentieth century. As the founder of New Directions, he published Ezra Pound’s The Cantos and William Carlos Williams’s Paterson; he brought Herman Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges to an American audience. Throughout his life, this tall, charismatic intellectual, athlete, and entrepreneur preferred to stay hidden. But no longer—in “Literchoor is My Beat”: James Laughlin and New Directions, Ian S. MacNiven has given us a sensitive and revealing portrait of this visionary and the understory of the last century of American letters.
Laughlin—or J, as MacNiven calls him—emerges as an impressive and complex figure: energetic, idealistic, and hardworking, but also plagued by doubts—not about his ability to identify and nurture talent, but about his own worth as a writer. Haunted by his father’s struggles with bipolar disorder, J threw himself into a flurry of activity, pulling together the first New Directions anthology before he’d graduated from Harvard and purchasing and managing a ski resort in Utah.
MacNiven’s portrait is comprehensive and vital, spiced with Ezra Pound’s eccentric letters, J’s romantic foibles, and anecdotes from a seat-of-your-pants era of publishing now gone by. A story about the struggle to publish only the best, it is itself an example of literary biography at its finest.
592 pages, Hardcover
First published November 18, 2014
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145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 15, 2016
Confused.
For me, this book is exactly why biographies so often do not make useful historical categories. James Laughlin has a number of interests that do not really tie well together. He was a lothario. He was skier. He was the scion of a rich Irish family out of Pittsburgh. And he was a famed publisher of modernist literature. To touch on all of these topics, MacNiven has to write at such a level of abstraction--for such a height above Laughlin's life--that nothing comes into focus.
The chief reason to consider Laughlin is of course his work as en editor and publisher. It's why he's still known and why he is interesting: why anyone would turn to a book about him. And so a biography needs to really wrestle with his work as a publisher. But too much gets squeezed out here. Pages are wasted on his love life and skiing career; MacNiven spends lots of words explaining different biographical details and clearing up misnomers. None of this is very interesting, though, or necessary. It could have been folded in, dropped, skimmed over, or relegated to footnotes.
Sacrificed is any really understanding of Laughlin's work as a publisher. One wants to know how he chose to publish the works he did, to get some understanding of his taste. He shaped American understanding of modern literature. How did he evaluate what he was reading? We never know--just that he was attracted to one writer or another, but not why.
Even more problematic, MacNiven is drawn off topic by famous names. (To the extent that we get any discussion of Laughlin's aesthetic judgment, it is that he is attracted by names of people who will later become popular.) Ezra Pound is a giant blackhole that absorbs light and pulls MacNiven into his orbit. Indeed, it often feels as though we know Pound better than Laughlin. Pound is the one who sets Laughlin onto publishing; he's the one who teaches Laughlin economics; Laughlin resists Pound's antisemitism, but otherwise seems to be mostly an appendage of Pound, a busy-worker for modernism.
Later, there are other bigger-than-life characters who similarly overshadow Laughlin, William Carlos Williams and Kenneth Rexroth. Again, Laughlin seems mostly a semi-independent appendage of these men, mostly canonizing their tastes, though not as irascible as them, and sometimes striking out against them.
A lot of work went into this book. It's a fine reference for those who want to know what was going on at any particular period in Laughlin's life. But it's not Laughlin's life, not even "a life." Laughlin himself is MIA from his own autobiography. One thinks of Laughlin's contemporary and peer, the publisher and artist Bern Porter, and his autobiography: "I've Already Left."
For me, this book is exactly why biographies so often do not make useful historical categories. James Laughlin has a number of interests that do not really tie well together. He was a lothario. He was skier. He was the scion of a rich Irish family out of Pittsburgh. And he was a famed publisher of modernist literature. To touch on all of these topics, MacNiven has to write at such a level of abstraction--for such a height above Laughlin's life--that nothing comes into focus.
The chief reason to consider Laughlin is of course his work as en editor and publisher. It's why he's still known and why he is interesting: why anyone would turn to a book about him. And so a biography needs to really wrestle with his work as a publisher. But too much gets squeezed out here. Pages are wasted on his love life and skiing career; MacNiven spends lots of words explaining different biographical details and clearing up misnomers. None of this is very interesting, though, or necessary. It could have been folded in, dropped, skimmed over, or relegated to footnotes.
Sacrificed is any really understanding of Laughlin's work as a publisher. One wants to know how he chose to publish the works he did, to get some understanding of his taste. He shaped American understanding of modern literature. How did he evaluate what he was reading? We never know--just that he was attracted to one writer or another, but not why.
Even more problematic, MacNiven is drawn off topic by famous names. (To the extent that we get any discussion of Laughlin's aesthetic judgment, it is that he is attracted by names of people who will later become popular.) Ezra Pound is a giant blackhole that absorbs light and pulls MacNiven into his orbit. Indeed, it often feels as though we know Pound better than Laughlin. Pound is the one who sets Laughlin onto publishing; he's the one who teaches Laughlin economics; Laughlin resists Pound's antisemitism, but otherwise seems to be mostly an appendage of Pound, a busy-worker for modernism.
Later, there are other bigger-than-life characters who similarly overshadow Laughlin, William Carlos Williams and Kenneth Rexroth. Again, Laughlin seems mostly a semi-independent appendage of these men, mostly canonizing their tastes, though not as irascible as them, and sometimes striking out against them.
A lot of work went into this book. It's a fine reference for those who want to know what was going on at any particular period in Laughlin's life. But it's not Laughlin's life, not even "a life." Laughlin himself is MIA from his own autobiography. One thinks of Laughlin's contemporary and peer, the publisher and artist Bern Porter, and his autobiography: "I've Already Left."
September 11, 2016
An adequately written telling of James Laughlin's life and also a compact history of New Directions. More 3.5 stars. As with his biography of Lawrence Durrell, MacNevin supplies a lot of material that current and future researchers, as well as the generally curious, can mine. However, his own style is colourless, and not quotable. This can be viewed as a drawback, a virtue, or something in between. For me, it's the first, but other readers will come to their own conclusions.
Laughlin's life intersected with Pound, Eliot, Miller, Rexroth, WC Williams, and many others, so people who enjoy the work of those authors likely will find something useful or interesting in this biography.
Laughlin's life intersected with Pound, Eliot, Miller, Rexroth, WC Williams, and many others, so people who enjoy the work of those authors likely will find something useful or interesting in this biography.
March 9, 2015
История одного из моих личных маяков в литературе — издательстве New Directions — и биография человека, который его сделал (в прошлом году отметили его столетие), помимо прочего — великого поэта Джеймза Локлина, который, пожалуй, мог бы стать и моим личным героем, но он слишком для этого богат и биполярен.
А книга замечательная, в меру неупорядоченная (как жизнь Локлина) и практически без лакировки, как это свойственно иным авторам биографий (есть умолчания, но и черт с ними). Помимо того, что это история издательства, без которого (и некоторых прочих) бы не было бы той американской литературы ХХ века, какую мы знаем и любим, эта история еще и оживает в массе неочевидных связей (к примеру, удивительные отношения Локлина и Набокова, своеобразие характеров Джуны Барнз или Делмора Шварца) и занимательных анекдотов (книготорговцы такие книготорговцы: в начале 60-х антивоенный сборник Томаса Мёртона «Original Child Bomb» они размещали где? правильно, в детском отделе). Жаль только, что мало про Гая Давенпорта, а про Джона Хоукса и вообще почти ничего.
А книга замечательная, в меру неупорядоченная (как жизнь Локлина) и практически без лакировки, как это свойственно иным авторам биографий (есть умолчания, но и черт с ними). Помимо того, что это история издательства, без которого (и некоторых прочих) бы не было бы той американской литературы ХХ века, какую мы знаем и любим, эта история еще и оживает в массе неочевидных связей (к примеру, удивительные отношения Локлина и Набокова, своеобразие характеров Джуны Барнз или Делмора Шварца) и занимательных анекдотов (книготорговцы такие книготорговцы: в начале 60-х антивоенный сборник Томаса Мёртона «Original Child Bomb» они размещали где? правильно, в детском отделе). Жаль только, что мало про Гая Давенпорта, а про Джона Хоукса и вообще почти ничего.
January 18, 2017
I read this book because I'm working on Tennessee Williams. I knew TW was devoted to Laughlin and thought of him as one of his true friends. For a paranoid guy like Tennessee, that was not nothing. I ended up liking Laughlin for himself. He was a rich guy who went out of his way to meet Ezra Pound, to found a publishing house, New Directions, that published unprofitable poetry, and to write poetry himself. It has wonderful vignettes of Norfolk, CT, of his aunt who looked after him, and of trying to look after an aging Pound when he was at his self-destroying, anti-Semitic worst. It's about how he survived the suicide of his son. It's about how he didn't love his wives enough. It's about his being aware of his failures and trying to do better. I thought the author was judicious and sensitive in his story telling. I highly recommend this book.
May 27, 2015
The audience for this book is self-selecting. If you want to read stories about Merton, Pound, WCW, care about the history of poetry publishing in America, etc, then read it.
Read
August 3, 2015A fascinating history of a revolutionary publishing house. This book should be fascinating for anyone who’s interested in publishing history!
October 1, 2025
Thorough and absorbing account of the man who was probably the most important publisher of “new” writing in the United States in the 20th century. His poetry is of less importance than his publishing.
July 27, 2019
Listen to my Biblio File podcast interview with Ian MacNiven here
http://thebibliofile.ca/ian-s-macnive...
http://thebibliofile.ca/ian-s-macnive...
January 22, 2015
A 600 page diapers (b. 1914) to cemetery (d. 1997) biography of james Laughlin, founder/publisher of new directions press. He does the usa east coast litany: steel 1%ers, boarding school in Switzerland and choate, haavard, paris, Italy at the feet of erza pound, hanging with stein and Toklas, buys into alta ski slope, starts publishing house in 1936, publishes pound, Rexroth, miller, bill Williams, merton, lorcabosquetbowles, borges,bioy, bolano, brechet, Buddha and bulgakov, along with 100’s of other literary types. On the other hand, Laughlin was a philanderer, tight fisted, scared of reds, scared of pushing it farther.
But fun read, author delves deep into lots of archives, lots of end notes, bibliography, index, pictures, a list of all nd authors. Enjoyable and informative reading.
But fun read, author delves deep into lots of archives, lots of end notes, bibliography, index, pictures, a list of all nd authors. Enjoyable and informative reading.
August 11, 2015
I'm not done yet, but I am DONE. There are interesting stories buried in the literary pretense, I suppose. But they are, as I say, well & safely buried. BTW: PLEASE tell me more about his love for SKIING. It is ENDLESSLY fascinating.
ADDENDUM: still not done. This book is a solid 200-250 pages longer than required. The job
of a biographer is to know what to leave out. I'm practically reading diner receipts at this point.
ADDENDUM: still not done. This book is a solid 200-250 pages longer than required. The job
of a biographer is to know what to leave out. I'm practically reading diner receipts at this point.
January 14, 2024
As a biography, this is an excellent book. And it is a biography, not a non-fiction work about New Directions. As I began reading, I realized that I really wanted to read a non-fiction work about New Directions and was not particularly interested in the details of Laughlin's life (particularly the skiing), so I skimmed those bits. Thankfully, Laughlin WAS New Directions for so many years that one does get enough on that front, too.
Read
December 18, 2015I love publishing memoirs, even ones with lots of chaff, but I found this one very difficult to get through. I skimmed a lot of it, to be honest.
January 19, 2016
Excellent biography and much here to shift how we think about Laughlin.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews