The author of The Vanderbilt Era examines sixteen famous friendships, from Boswell and Johnson to Hawthorne and Melville. This delightful series of short essays explores friendship in its various forms--from true intimacy to professional detente between rivals. The friendships, literary and political, span two continents and three centuries--Boswell and Johnson, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Richelieu and Father Joseph, FDR and Harry Hopkins, Edith Wharton and Margaret Chanler--sixteen sketches in all. Auchincloss approaches his subjects with grace, tact, and insight, subtly defining the peculiar, gentle chemistry on which platonic bonds depend. The result is a surprising array of social patterns and personal destinies, all stemming from the simple desire for human company.