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Last Updated: Apr 15, 2020 2:20 AM
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Introduction

Literary Couples

February 2006

February is the month of love. The following is a list of literary couples: writers who fell in love with other writers. It's an eclectic mix of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Take a look and find a great read to curl up with on a cold February evening.

Recommended Reads

Simone de Beauvoir & Jean-Paul Sartre

America Day by Day by Simone de Beauvoir
ISBN: 0520209796

Publication Date: 1999-01-05

Here is the ultimate American road book, one with a perspective unlike that of any other. In January 1947 Simone de Beauvoir landed at LaGuardia airport and began a four-month journey that took her from one coast of the United States to the other, and back again. It is one of the most intimate, warm, and compulsively readable texts from the great writer's pen.
The Wall by Jean-Paul Sartre; Lloyd Alexander (Translator)
ISBN: 0811201902

Publication Date: 1969-01-17

In the five stories included in this collection - "The Wall," "The Room," "Erostratus," "Intimacy" and "The Childhood of a Leader" - the French master of Existentialism displays his powers of narrative and psychological insight at their most effective. Sartre's characters and situations mirror the conflicts, complexities, neuroses and sensuality of the twentieth century.

Michelle Blake & Dennis McFarland

The Book of Light by Michelle Blake
ISBN: 0399150463

Publication Date: 2003-05-12

When photographs of an ancient biblical scroll, kept secret for thousands of years, turn up at the chaplain's office at Tate University, interim priest and sleuth Lily Connor is asked to investigate
Singing Boy by Dennis McFarland
ISBN: 080506608X

Publication Date: 2001-03-01

From the bestselling author of "The Music Room" comes a deeply moving novel about lives changed forever in an instant of senseless violence. It is the story of a woman who is undone by grief when her husband is killed, and her eight-year-old son--who appears unscathed--until a troubling incident reveals his profound pain

Elizabeth Barrett Browning & Robert Browning

Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
ISBN: 0385416180

Publication Date: 1990-08-01

These poems celebrate one of the most famous romances of the nineteenth century. Recognized for their Victorian tradition and discipline, these have long been considered some of the finest, most passionate and memorable love poems in the English language.
Robert Browning - Selected Poetry by Robert Browning; Daniel Karlin (Contribution by)
ISBN: 0140586156

Publication Date: 1990-06-05

Henry James called Robert Browning (1812-89) 'a tremendous and incomparable modern', and the sheer immediacy and colloquial energy of his poetry ensure its enduring appeal. Browning paints landscapes both suburban and sublime, combines lyric and demotic language and introduces the everyday events of the streets and market place into the rarefied world of Victorian poetry.

Joan Didion & John Gregory Dunne

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
ISBN: 140004314X

Publication Date: 2005-10-04

An autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by the acclaimed author details the critical illness of her daughter, Quintana Roo, followed by the fatal coronary of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. She describes her struggle to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval, and grief. (2005 National Book Award/Nonfiction)
Nothing Lost by John Gregory Dunne
ISBN: 1400041430

Publication Date: 2004-05-04

The brutal killing of black drifter Edgar Parlance ignites a destructive circus of the media, power politics, legal infighting, passion, and more for a rural midwestern town and the diverse characters involved. (The last novel of the late Dunne, who died in December 2003.)

Nora Ephron & Nicholas Pileggi

Heartburn by Nora Ephron
ISBN: 0679767959

Publication Date: 1996-05-28

Is it possible to write a sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage? If the writer is Nora Ephron, the answer is a resounding yes. Cookbook author Rachel Samstat--out of analysis and seven months pregnant--discovers that her husband is into analysis and an affair, and suffers six weeks of intensive heartburn.
Wise Guy by Nicholas Pileggi
ISBN: 0671723227

Publication Date: 1990-09-01

Henry Hill, a longtime member of organized crime, recounts his criminal career, life inside the Mafia, his involvement in the six-million dollar Lufthansa robbery, and his decision to become a federal witness.

Louise Erdrich & Michael Dorris

The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
ISBN: 0060977507

Publication Date: 1998-04-01

Orphaned fourteen-year-old Carl and his eleven-year-old sister, Mary, travel to Argus, North Dakota, to live with their mother's sister, in this tale of abandonment, sexual obsession, jealousy and unstinting love.
Cloud Chamber by Michael Dorris
ISBN: 0684815672

Publication Date: 1997-01-06

From late-nineteenth-century Ireland to present-day America, the diverse members of a family--men, women, and children--speak out in their own voices about their emotions, passions, determination, memories, and, above all, the persistence of the love that binds them together.

Antonia Fraser & Harold Pinter

Political Death by Antonia Fraser
ISBN: 0553099647

Publication Date: 1996-02-01

Summoned to the home of eccentric Lady Imogen Swain, journalist Jemima Shore learns of the former's past affair with a rising politician and her intentions of going public with the details.
Complete Works by Harold Pinter
ISBN: 0802150969

Publication Date: 1994-01-18

Harold Pinter has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential playwrights in contemporary theatre: his arresting and original works have left a lasting imprint on the development of the stage and screen while delighting audiences around the world.

Kathryn Harrison & Colin Harrison

Envy by Kathryn Harrison
ISBN: 1400063469

Publication Date: 2005-07-12

A sexually obsessed New York psychoanalyst in the midst of a midlife crisis, William Moreland comes face to face with a woman he had loved twenty-five years earlier during a college reunion, an encounter that leads to shocking revelations about their relationship, growing sexual fantasies about his patients, and the discovery of long-buried family secrets. A NYT Top 100 Book of 2005.
The Havana Room by Colin Harrison
ISBN: 0374299862

Publication Date: 2004-01-15

Suddenly losing everything, down-and-out attorney Bill Wyeth agrees to help Jay Rainey, the friend of Manhattan steakhouse manager Allison Sparks, in concluding a last-minute real-estate transaction, only to find himself entangled in Rainey's odd obsessions and the dangerous goings-on in the Havana Room, the steakhouse's private bar.

Lillian Hellman & Dashiell Hammett

Six Plays by Lillian Hellman by Lillian Hellman
ISBN: 0394741129

Publication Date: 1979-10-12

These six plays span nearly twenty years of theatre and display the range of Lillian Hellman's dramatic gifts. The Children's Hour (1934), her first play, was considered shocking at the time; it concerns the devastating effects of a child's malicious charge of lesbianism against two of her teachers. Days to Come (1936) is about the tragic consequences of strike-breaking in a small Midwestern community. The Little Foxes (1939) and Another Part of the Forest (1946) together constitute a chilling study of the financial and psychological conflicts within the Hubbards, a wealthy and rapacious Southern family. Watch on the Rhine (1941), the story of how fascism affects an American family and the refugees they harbor, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The Autumn Garden (1951) is a poignant yet humorous drama set at a summer resort near New Orleans.
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
ISBN: 0679722637

Publication Date: 1989-07-17

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett's most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

Faye Kellerman & Jonathan Kellerman

Straight into Darkness by Faye Kellerman; Paul Michael (Read by)
ISBN: 1594830428

Publication Date: 2005-08-01

In the wake of a series of high-society murders in 1920s Munich, homicide detective Axel Berg investigates suspicions about the killer's motivations in a case involving dangerous political factions and the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Rage by Jonathan Kellerman
ISBN: 034546706x

Publication Date: 2005-05-24

Psychologist Alex Delaware is stunned when Rand Duchay, one of his patients, whom he has been treating since his release from prison for the killing of a young boy as a teenager, asks for a meeting to confide a dangerous secret to him, only to turn up dead before their arranged rendezvous, a murder that could hold the key to horrifying secrets from the past.

Cassandra King (Sandra Ray) & Pay Conroy

The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King
ISBN: 1401300383

Publication Date: 2005-01-19

"None of the Same Sweet Girls are really girls anymore, and none of them have actually ever been that sweet. But the story of this spirited group of six southern women, who have been holding biannual reunions ever since they were together in college, is nothing short of compelling." "On an island every summer and in the mountains every fall, the Same Sweet Girls come together to share their stories. When one of the group faces the most difficult challenge of her life, the novel builds to a powerful conclusion."
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
ISBN: 0395353009

Publication Date: 1986-10-21

In his most brilliant and powerful novel, Pat Conroy tells the story of Tom Wingo, his twin sister, Savannah, and the dark and violent past of the family into which they were born. Pat Conroy reveals the lives of his characters with surpassing depth and power, capturing the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina low country and a lost way of life. His lyric gifts, abundant good humor, and compelling storytelling are well known to readers of The Great Santini and The Lords of Discipline. The Prince of Tides continues that tradition yet displays a new, mature voice of Pat Conroy, signaling this work as one of his greatest accomplishments.

Nicole Krauss & Jonathan Safron Foer

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
ISBN: 0393060349

Publication Date: 2005-05-17

Leo Gursky is a man who fell in love at the age of ten and has been in love ever since. Sixty years ago in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book in honor of his love. These days he's living in America and assumes that the book, and his dreams, are irretrievably lost, until one day they return to him in a brown envelope. Meanwhile, a young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles across the book that changed her mother's life and goes in search of its author. Soon these and other worlds collide in a truly captivating story of the power of love, of loneliness and of survival.
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
ISBN: 0060529709

Publication Date: 2003-04-01

A writer journeys to the farmlands of eastern Europe to find Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Passionate and marked by an indelible humanity, "Everything Is Illuminated" mines the black holes of history and is ultimately a story about searching: for people and places that no longer exist and for the tales that link past and future.

Kate Lehrer & Jim Lehrer

Confessions of a Bigamist by Kate Lehrer
ISBN: 1400050251

Publication Date: 2004-05-11

A sophisticated, forty-something New Yorker, happily married to a wealthy international attorney, Michelle Banyon makes her living with her alter ego, Daisy Strait, an organization counselor, in which guise, during a lecture in Texas, she accidentally injures handsome conservationist Wilson Collins, falls in love, and gets married--without a divorce.
The Franklin Affair by Jim Lehrer
ISBN: 1400061989

Publication Date: 2005-04-26

A young historian's peaceful and orderly life is undermined by personal and professional crises when he receives a letter dating back to the Revolutionary War that reveals a scandal that could alter American history.

Mary Matalin & James Carville

All's Fair by James Carville; Mary Matalin; Peter Knobler
ISBN: 0679431039

Publication Date: 1994-09-12

He's a little bit country, she's a little bit rock and roll. He's a lot Democrat, she's a lot Republican. The Donny and Marie of politics display a revealing x-ray of the presidential campaign. James Carville and Mary Matalin, themselves key players at the center of the political battles and election headlines that gripped America, tell in candid, stunning detail the day-by-day pressures, near disasters, and triumphs of campaign life.
Take It Back by Paul Begala (Other Primary Creator); James Carville
ISBN: 074327752X

Publication Date: 2006-01-10

In Had Enough? the legendary political adviser comes out of his corner swinging, taking on the Bush White House and the Republican leaders in Congress on every front - from the economy to education to foreign affairs. But he doesn't just attack; he lays out constructive "had enough" solutions for healing the damage done by the Republicans and helping disheartened Democrats get back on their feet.

Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini

The Dangerous Hour by Marcia Muller
ISBN: 0892968044

Publication Date: 2004-07-28

When one of her investigative operatives is arrested for major credit card fraud, private detective Sharon McCone's efforts to prove the woman's innocence are complicated by the discovery of evidence that supports her guilt and points to a larger conspiracy.
Illusions by Bill Pronzini
ISBN: 0786704039

Publication Date: 1997-05-30

The "Nameless Detective" investigates the suicide of his estranged friend and detective partner while searching for his missing ex-wife, who holds the secrets to his death.

Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; Frances McCullough (Foreword by); Lois Ames (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9780060837020

Publication Date: 2005-08-02

The Bell Jar is a classic of American literature. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963--only a month before the author's suicide--Sylvia Plath's harrowing autobiographical novel traces a young woman's descent into an emotional breakdown. The brilliant and disturbing story of Esther Greenwood's journey from the glamorous world of magazine publishing in New York to the isolating world of the asylum has become one of the most famous books of the late twentieth century, and still has all its power to shock and move us.
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
ISBN: 0374112967

Publication Date: 1998-02-01

Formerly Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II, the late Ted Hughes (1930-98) is recognized as one of the few contemporary poets whose work has mythic scope and power. And few episodes in postwar literature have the legendary stature of Hughes's romance with, and marriage to, the great American poet Sylvia Plath. The poems in Birthday Letters are addressed (with just two exceptions) to Plath, and were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963. Some are love letters, others haunted recollections and ruminations. Countless books have discussed the subject of this intense relationship from a necessary distance, but this volume--at last--offers us Hughes's own account. Moreover, it is a truly remarkable collection of poems in its own right.

Mary Shelley & Percy Bysshe Shelley

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Maurice Hindle (Editor, Introduction by, Notes by)
ISBN: 0141439475

Publication Date: 2003-05-06

Here is the classic novel of supreme horror that has held readers spellbound since its publication in 1816. This new edition will also feature an examination of the films inspired by Shelley's groundbreaking work, plus a fascinating look into genetic engineering and the modern implications of this immortal tale.
Zastrozzi by Percy Bysshe Shelley; Germaine Greer (Foreword by)
ISBN: 1843910292

Publication Date: 2002-11-01

Zastrozzi, Shelley's first published novel, is a work of pure Gothic fantasy, offering many glimpses of the author's nascent poetic genius. Zastrozzi, the arch-villain of the tale, is sworn to avenge the wrongs done to his mother. Prepared to go to any lengths to execute his horrific plans, he enlists the help of the willing Matilda. Together, they vow to destroy Verezzi and Julia, the subjects of their wrath, and embark upon a fateful chain of events that can lead only to catastrophe.

Zadie Smith & Nick Laird

On Beauty by Zadie Smith
ISBN: 1594200637

Publication Date: 2005-09-13

Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children-Jerome, Zora and Levi-are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives. Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith's third novel is a brilliant look at family life, marriage, the collision of the personal and political, and an honest look at people's self-deceptions. It is also, as you might expect, very funny indeed.
Utterly Monkey by Nick Laird
ISBN: 9780060828363

Publication Date: 2006-01-03

"Danny Williams is a young lawyer. He didn't mean to be a lawyer, but somehow he is - and for up to eighteen hours a day. He's well-paid, home-owning and 27, but also over-worked, lonely and frequently stoned. The plan was to leave the troubles of a small town in Northern Ireland for the big city in England, but it turns out Londoners have troubles of their own. Taking place over an intense five-day period - set in London and the fictional town of Ballyglass - the novel looks at who and what we really owe loyalty to: our lovers, our friends, our country, ourselves? And what happens to your soul in an office?"

Susan Sontag & Annie Liebovitz

Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
ISBN: 0374248583

Publication Date: 2003-03-15

A brilliant, clear-eyed new consideration of the visual representation of violence in our culture--its ubiquity, meanings, and effects. Watching the evening news offers constant evidence of atrocity--a daily commonplace in our "society of spectacle. Sontag's book, a startling reappraisal of the intersection of "information", "news," "art," and politics in the contemporary depiction of war and disaster, will be equally essential. It will forever alter our thinking about the uses and meanings of images in our world.
American Music by Annie Leibovitz (Photographer)
ISBN: 0375505075

Publication Date: 2003-10-28

"American Music is a collection of photographs of the musicians, places and people that enrich the landscape of American music." "As Rolling Stone's chief photographer for over thirteen years, Annie Leibovitz created a legendary body of work. Her portraits of some of the world's most talented musicians capture more than the performer, they convey the art of making music.

Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas

Stein by Gertrude Stein; Catharine Stimpson (Editor); Harriet Chessman (Editor); Stimpson (Editor)
ISBN: 188301140X

Publication Date: 1998-03-01

The most radical innovator in 20th-century literature, Gertrude Stein proposed nothing less than a reinvention of language from the ground up. Now the Library of America presents a full-scale gathering of Stein's achievements--a two-volume set that encompasses over 40 years of the author's works.
Aromas and Flavors of Past and Present by Alice B. Toklas; Poppy Cannon (Introduction by)
ISBN: 1558216332

Publication Date: 1997-12-01

Aromas and Flavors of Past and Present is a book for browsing and reading as well as for cooking. Alice B. Toklas presents over two hundred recipes - some simple, some elaborate, and others that are simply extravagant (mashed potatoes that call for an entire pound of butter). Poppy Cannon's annotations make the recipes easy to understand and use in the United States, but the recipes themselves appear just as Toklas wrote them - with a mix of the practical and philosophical.

Judith Viorst & Milton Viorst

I'm Too Young to Be Seventy by Judith Viorst
ISBN: 0743267745

Publication Date: 2005-10-12

The best-selling author of Forever Fifty and Suddenly Sixty presents a collection of poetic works on the peaks and valleys of being a septuagenarian, in a lighthearted volume that explores such themes as grandparenthood, the state of her teeth, and senior sex.
In the Shadow of the Prophet by Milton Viorst
ISBN: 0813339022

Publication Date: 2001-11-09

An expert on the Middle East explores the political, cultural, and religious struggle that exists today between fundamentalist and conservative Islamic sects in Iran, Sudan, Algeria, and other countries, and its consequences for the West. Reprint.

Ayelet Waldman & Michael Chabon

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman
ISBN: 0385515308

Publication Date: 2006-01-24

The best-selling author of Forever Fifty and Suddenly Sixty presents a collection of poetic works on the peaks and valleys of being a septuagenarian, in a lighthearted volume that explores such themes as grandparenthood, the state of her teeth, and senior sex.
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
ISBN: 006076340X

Publication Date: 2004-11-09

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured up the golden age of comic books -- intertwining history, legend, and storytelling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to craft a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story. This brilliant homage, which won the 2004 Aga Khan Prize for fiction, is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

Virginia Woolf & Leonard Woolf

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
ISBN: 1853261912

Publication Date: 1996-01-01

Direct and vivid in its telling of the details of a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, the novel manages ultimately to deliver much more. It is the feelings that loom behind those daily events--the social alliances, the shopkeeper's exchange, the fact of death--that give Mrs. Dalloway texture and richness.
The Village in the Jungle by Leonard Woolf
ISBN: 9780907871293

Publication Date: 2006-06-07

Leonard Woolf's reputation rests chiefly on the care he took of his wife's literary genius, but his career (first as a colonial administrator, then as a writer, publisher, editor, and political advisor) was distinctive in its own right.

Helen Yglesias and Jose Yglesias

The Girls by Helen Yglesias
ISBN: 188328516X

Publication Date: 1999-08-25

In her first novel in a dozen years, the acclaimed author of "How She Died" and "Sweetsir" returns with a poignant and very funny story about the last American taboos: old age and dying.
The Old Gents by José Yglesias
ISBN: 1558851615

Publication Date: 1996-01-01

Bones stiff and muscles aching, German Moran finds little inspiration or comfort in the literary life he has led for most of his time on earth as a writer and one-time radical. He has raised children and penned diverse chronicles, but old age and infirmity have contributed more than their share of ennui. Familiar stirrings awaken and long-forgotten juices soon begin to flow, however, when a comely actress, Gwendolyn, and her toddler move in next door. German's grander philosophical questions about the meaning of life and death quickly give way to more basic, poignantly naive ponderings: Does she return his love? Is he too old? Can he compete in muscular vigor and tone with her live-in partner? To complicate matters, the unlikely rival for the charms of Gwendolyn is a dashing young movie producer who happens to be German's own son!

List Created By

Arlene Sahraie

Library Services Director, BCCLS

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