James Laughlin papers

James Laughlin was born in 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pa., the great-grandson of the founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. He was schooled at the Choate School (Wallingford, Conn.), in Switzerland, at Harvard College (Class of 1936 (39)), and spent time in Italy studying with poet Ezra Pound. Laughlin began publishing his short stories and poems while still in his teens. In 1936, while a student at Harvard, Laughlin founded New Directions which was to become the New Directions Publishing Corporation, the publisher of what has been called some of the best and most daring poetry of the 20th century. Laughlin also headed Intercultural Publications, Inc., in New York City from 1952 to 1969, and continued, throughout his life, to produce his own volumes of poetry some of which were published by New Directions. He lectured widely on publishing and gave numerous poetry readings of his own work, as well as reading and lecturing on the poetry of those whose works he published. Additionally, Laughlin was an avid skier who wrote and published on this subject; he was also owner of the Alta Ski Resort (Alta, Utah).

His poetry titles include: "Small Book of Poems" (1948), "Wild Anemone and Other Poems" (1957), "Confidential Report and Other Poems" (1959), "Tabellae" (1986), "Selected Poems, 1935-1985" (1986), "In Another Country: Poems, 1935-1975" (1978), "Owl of Minerva: Poems" (1987), "Phantoms" (1995), "The Collected Poems of James Laughlin" (1994), "Country Road: Poems" (1995), and "The Commonplace Book of Pentastichs" (1998).