Literary pairs through the years.
By Kristen Droesch — Written on Dec 03, 2013
Nothing is quite as special as when two literary folk find love. Sometimes explosive, almost always creatively prosperous, these unions have produced some of the finest works in the world. Check out the list of our six favorite literary power couples!
F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald: volatile and wild, this relationship is one for the ages. Both novelists in their own rights, each drew from their shared experiences in their marriage to inspire their works.
Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas: these ladies were together for nearly 40 years, and spent their time creating trailblazing works that set the standard for 20th century literature. They were members of the so-called "Lost Generation" of Paris society, hobnobbing with the likes of Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.
Anais Nin and Henry Miller: even though they were married to other people, Nin and Miller's affair is the stuff of literary legend They sent passionate love letters back and forth for twenty years, and Nin financed the first publication of Tropic of Cancer in 1934.
Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky: leaders of the Beat generation, Ginsberg and Orlovsky first met in San Francisco in Their partnership would span more than 40 years, as they worked together as contemporaries and lovers.
David Foster Wallace and Mary Karr: though they didn't make it in the long haul, these two had a huge impact on each other's work, earning them a place on the list Karr was featured in Wallace's incomparable Infinite Jest, and her work continues to be influenced by the late novelist to this day.
Zadie Smith and Nick Laird: married in , this duo (she a novelist, and he a poet), is considered one of the sexiest in the English literary scene. Young, talented and beautiful, Smith and Laird have the kind of relationship most writers dream about, sharing their work and their lives.
