An illuminating study of the nature of friendship itself, A Common Life is a fascinating narrative of the entanglements of art and life.

In each of the friendships that Laskin portrays, he demonstrates how the two writers met at a critical turning point in their lives and careers and how they profoundly affected the course of both.

"A delightful, unusual and often illuminating study of a kind of influences wrought on eight famous American writers by their intimate friendships with each other." -- Louis Auchincloss​