Writers at Work, Second Series: The Paris Review Interviews, Second Series

Long before the age of endless hype by multi- media means readers hungered for more details about the writing lives of their favorite writers. The Paris Review chose first- rate writers, and asked them intelligent questions about their own writing practice. As I understand it did not rely on the conversations alone, but enabled the writer to look at the transcript of the initial talk and rewrite. Thus what the reader was given was a really polished literary document. And the interviews supplied many fascinating details. One from this collection I particularly remember was with Hemingway who spoke about his famous sharpening of his pencils, and his rewriting thirty- nine times the ending of I believe ' A farewell to Arms' and his belief that what every writer needed is 'a good sh.. detector'. A truly excellent series for all those who care about writing as ' craft' and as 'art'.

It's a damn shame that this eight-part series published by Penguin and edited by George Plimpton and Malcolm Cowley is no long available. This series is truely one-of-a-kind, and the quality of the writers who participated will likely never be duplicated. These remarkable interviews by the Paris Review explore the motivations, habits, and techniques employed by some of the greatest writers of the 20th century.This second work in the series includes interviews with Ezra Pound, Hemingway, Huxley, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Henry Miller, Boris Pasternak, and Katherin Anne Porter, just to name a few. The intelligence and imagination of both the interviewee and interviewers comes shining through, and the reader is kept continually entertained. If you can get your hands on a used copy, I heartily urge you to do so.