Byways

by James Laughlin, Guy Davenport (Contributor), Peter Glassgold (Editor)

The long-awaited memoirs of New Directions' founder. James Laughlin, the late founder and publisher of New Directions, was also a poet of elegance and distinction. At his death in 1997 at the age of eighty-three, he left unfinished his long autobiographical poem, Byways . It is no exaggeration to say that his publishing house, which he began in 1936 while still an undergraduate at Harvard, changed the way Americans read and write serious literature. Yet the man who published some of the greatest writers of the twentieth century remained resistant for most of his life to the memoiristic impulse. In the end he found his autobiographical voice by adopting the swift-moving line of Kenneth Rexroth's booklength philosophical poem, The Dragon and the Unicorn (1952). Byways weaves together family history (the Laughlins were wealthy Pittsburgh steel magnates), the poet's early memories and travels in Europe and America with his playboy father, his years at Harvard, first meetings with Pound, the beginning of his publishing venture, his reminiscences of close friendships with writers including W.C. Williams, Thomas Merton, and Kenneth Rexroth, his postwar work in Europe and Asia with the Ford Foundation as publisher of its international literary magazine, Perspectives , and not least, his many early loves.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

James Laughlin was an American poet and literary book publisher who founded New Directions Publishing.

One of Laughlin's most anthologized works is "Step on His Head", a poem about his relationship with his children.

Reviews

[Eric Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

He’s such good company. I wish this had a thousand more pages.

[Larry-bob Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second autobiographical book I've read by New Directions publisher James Laughlin, the other being The Way It Wasn't: From the Files of James Laughlin. Both have unconventional memoir formats (though that other was compiled posthumously so I suppose form can't be attributed entirely to him.) This one is a long narrow poem with occasional interpolations of prose by others. Generally each section focuses on one person; his older relatives, girlfriends, Ezra Pound, Thomas Merton, William Carlos Williams (he published them all).

He also writes about his time at Harvard, including about professor "Matty" F.O. Matthiessen, author of American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman, who was gay and committed suicide after the death of his partner, painter Russell Cheney; would be interesting to read Rat & the Devil: Journal Letters of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney.

[LOVEROFBOOKS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea anymore why I chose this book. I see that I started it in June of 2021 and it's taken me this long. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book every time I sat down to read it. I wasn't wild about the book/his memoirs being in poem form, but it was still interesting reading.