A fascinating correspondence that reveals the heart of a poet and dramatises the generation gap of the fifties, sixties and seventies.
Begun in 1944 when Allen was a precocious, rebellious college student, the book charts his ascension as a revolutionary icon in poetry and ends with his father's death in 1976.
Allen and Louis' letters are filled with affection, respect, and a healthy dose of argumentative zeal - they debate every major political and artistic issue that faced America in over three decades of extraordinary change, from Korea, the Beat generation and Cuba through Civil Rights and the counterculture to Vietnam and Watergate.