iterary friendships are often unwieldy
was 47 years old and, if William Carlos
-

things, awkwardly glued together by
Williams is to be believed, the "saint" of
 

admiration, mutual sense of purpose-and
American poets, a respected scion of mod-
 

a
healthy dose of professional paranoia.
ernism, possessed of
a
refreshing disre-
 

Emerson, as Whitman put it, brought the...