Encounters

This engaging book presents a series of word portraits by and about some of the notable figures of our time. In each chapter, a well-known person recalls a memorable encounter with another famous individual who is no longer living.

Writing for the Yale Review , 18 accomplished men and women--three Britons and 15 Americans--vividly recall experiences with an equal number of notable figures. John Hollander remembers W. H. Auden; Bayard Rustin works with A. Philip Randolph. Mary Lee Settle is astonished and repelled by Somerset Maugham; Quentin Bell is disappointed by that "amiable philistine" Henri Matisse; Paul Horgan is captivated by that "sly conjuror" Mary Garden; Francine du Plessix Gray is bullied by Charles Olson ("the Big O") at Black Mountain College and grows as a result. Each essay forms a combined portrait of the narrator and his or her remembered subject; the profiles, most written many years after the exchanges occurred, are illuminated by a back-lit wisdom. Readers will hope for a sequel to this volume.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.