ROBERT SILVERS and BARBARA EPSTEIN are co-editors of The New York Review of Books.

From Publishers Weekly

Silvers and Epstein, editors of The New York Review of Books, pull together 27 essays in this smart and eclectic collection. Published over the past four decades in the NYRB, pieces here deal with professional relationships and personal friendships among such writers as Robert Lowell and Jerome London, Susan Sontag and Paul Goodman, and Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein. Saul Bellow writes of the immediate connection he made with John Cheever, whom he "met at irregular intervals all over the US." Derek Walcott shares his take on the work of fellow poet Robert Lowell, who "made the body of literature his body, all styles his style, every varying voice his own." And Larry McMurtry recalls his experiences with Ken Kesey, the original Merry Prankster, whom he first met at Stanford University in September 1960 and kept up with through the '70s, '80s and '90s. But readers unfamiliar with certain names in this anthology might find it all less than fascinating. Essays by relatively obscure writers such as Anna Akhmatova (on Amedeo Modigliani) and Michael Ignatieff (on Bruce Chatwin), for example, prove difficult to finish. A thoroughly academic audience, however, will no doubt appreciate the comprehensive line-up here.

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From Booklist

When some of Stravinsky's disciples suggested that Robert Craft write the great composer's biography, Craft countered that long friendship disqualified him: "I was too close to Stravinsky to do this." Precisely because they value a perspective that brings us closer to a great creator than a biographer ever could, Silvers and Epstein have assembled a remarkable set of essays by friends of prominent musicians, scientists, poets, and novelists. Only the close proximity of friendship allows readers to glimpse Einstein taking rare delight in a day of sailing, Roethke playing tennis with fierce abandon, and Kesey playing enchanting melodies on the wandering bus he shared with his Merry Pranksters. Seeing through the eyes of friends permits readers to glimpse titans up close, without the often--dehumanizing lenses of theory or ideology. Even the political passions of Mary McCarthy part long enough to disclose a woman too spontaneous to keep a diary, too homespun to let others grind her coffee beans. These wonderful reminiscences will renew readers' appreciation for those unpredictable joys shared between all close friends. Bryce Christensen

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