Beautiful Author Friendships for World Friendship Day
“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”
This week marks World Friendship Day and we’re excited to celebrate it! Literature has produced some wonderful friendships over the years that generations of readers have admired and hoped to find in their own lives. However it’s not just fictional friendships that we’re fond of (although you can read more about those right here), there are some beautiful author friendships worth writing about too! Here’s a little more info about four of our favourites.
NEIL GAIMAN AND TERRY PRATCHETT
Neil Gaiman was a young journalist when he was first sent to interview Terry Pratchett. What followed was a lifelong friendship, both professional and personal, until Pratchett’s passing in 2015. The two are undeniably gifted writers, and together wrote Good Omens. Find out more about their friendship in this beautiful essay penned by Gaiman in tribute to Pratchett and their friendship.
SYLVIA PLATH & ANNE SEXTON
The two poets met whilst studying in the same class at Boston University. It wasn’t just their love (and talent) for writing that cemented their friendship, the two had a number of shared interests and life experiences, including a near identical worldview. Discussion on such topics would take place over three martinis after their seminars. Sadly, both women suffered from poor mental health and viewed death as the only ‘true’ way to be free. Both Plath and Sexton committed suicide.
J.R.R TOLKIEN AND C.S LEWIS
The two matched each other intellectually and had a lot in common, including shared past experiences and a passion for imagination led writing. “He was for long my only audience,” he once wrote. The pair remained friends for a number of years however an undercurrent of rivalry and differing opinions on what constituted good literature led to the pair drifting and not seeing each other at all in the latter part of their lives.
Despite their disagreements, it’s clear that the pair always cared deeply for one another. Lewis’ death spurred Tolkien to write a letter to Lewis’ daughter explaining how her father’s passing felt “like an axe-blow near the roots.
JAMES BALDWIN & TONI MORRISON
Toni Morrison first met James Baldwin when she worked in publishing, where she attempted to persuade him to sign a book deal. Baldwin refused the deal, but a lifelong friendship began in its place. The two went on to have a tremendous influence on one another’s work, with each of them sharing a mutual trust and understanding of one another and what they stood for. We urge you to read the beautiful eulogy Morrison wrote following Baldwin’s passing to get a real insight into their friendship. (Note: you might cry.)
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Do you have a favourite author friendship? We’d love to hear about them!
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