Each chapter of "A Chance Meeting" takes up an actual encounter between two historical figures. As Rachel Cohen writes in her introduction: 'They met in ordinary ways - a careful arrangement after long admiration, a friend's casual introduction, or because they both just happened to be standing near the drinks. They talked to each other for a few hours or for forty years, and later it seemed to them impossible that they could have missed each other.' "A Chance Meeting" opens with a young Henry James in the studio of the ...
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Each chapter of "A Chance Meeting" takes up an actual encounter between two historical figures. As Rachel Cohen writes in her introduction: 'They met in ordinary ways - a careful arrangement after long admiration, a friend's casual introduction, or because they both just happened to be standing near the drinks. They talked to each other for a few hours or for forty years, and later it seemed to them impossible that they could have missed each other.' "A Chance Meeting" opens with a young Henry James in the studio of the great Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, and captures the boy in a moment of exquisite self-consciousness about being American. Later in the book, Brady will return with Walt Whitman and with Ulysses Grant, while Henry James reappears with William Dean Howells and Sarah Orne Jewett. Cohen brilliantly reanimates such unforgettable pairings as Grant and Mark Twain; William James and W. E. B. Du Bois; Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz; Carl Van Vechten and Gertrude Stein; Hart Crane and Charlie Chaplin; Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston; Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore; Richard Avedon and James Baldwin; and John Cage and Marcel Duchamp. In all, thirty figures appear and reappear to create a long chain of friendships. Ultimately, Cohen traces the 'huge and altering loyalties' that emerged, the 'permanent conditions of influence' that were established, and the 'acts of rebellion' that were sparked in pursuit of a defiantly American form of expression. "A Chance Meeting" is enchanting, exciting, evocative - and just so well done that it will become a classic.
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Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $6.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Jonathan Cape.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $16.19, good condition, Sold by ZBK Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Park, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Jonathan Cape.
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Seller's Description:
Pages and cover are intact. Used book in good and clean conditions. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $16.67, new condition, Sold by Pearlydewdrops rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Haywards Heath, WEST SUSSEX, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2004 by Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $22.00, very good condition, Sold by Brian Bauld (B-Line Books) rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Amherst, NS, CANADA, published 2004 by Jonathan Cape.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $42.42, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Jonathan Cape.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $46.55, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $46.80, new condition, Sold by Pearlydewdrops rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Haywards Heath, WEST SUSSEX, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2004 by Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Add this copy of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers to cart. $102.93, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Jonathan Cape.
