Star-Crossed Lovers

<p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>From Lowney Handy's scandalous small-town open marriage to author James</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>Jones's extraordinary apprenticeship with Maxwell Perkins </span><em style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>Star-Crossed Lovers</em><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)> illuminates an unforgettable love</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>story. She was an eccentric small-town self-taught rebel driven by creative zeal and a</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>non-conformist streak. He was a distressed ex-GI (flat broke without prospects</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>damaged by war) 17 years younger than she consumed by visions of a writer's life.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>Advocating for Jones's medical discharge from the Army in the summer of 1944</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>Lowney and her husband invited Jones to live and write at their home in Robinson</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>Illinois. After years of struggle Jones's </span><em style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>From Here to Eternity</em><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)> won</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>the National Book Award and profoundly transformed American literature. The 1953 film</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>adaptation swept the Academy Awards in 1954. Expanding their shared vision of life</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>the Handys and Jones incorporated a unique writers' colony in 1951 that was funded</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>mostly by Jones's </span><em style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>Eternity</em><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)> royalties. This is their odyssey of love passion and conflict</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(72 83 93 1)>which remains exceptional in literary history.</span></p><p><br></p><p>Fascinating story-kept my interest throughout.</p><p>-OLIVER STONE Academy Award-winning writer/director </p><p> </p><p> ... The downright surreal story of James Jones and Lowney Handy and what they accomplished.</p><p>-ERICA HELLER author of <em>Yossarian Slept Here</em> and <em>One Last Lunch</em></p><p>  </p><p class=ql-align-justify>Oh to be young and a writer and finding your way with an exotic older woman! M. J. Moore's <em>Star-Crossed Lovers</em> is an incredible tale...Indispensable!</p><p>-LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV author of <em>Dress Gray</em> <em>Heart of War</em> and other novels; <em>Village Voice</em> staff writer; West Point graduate</p><p> </p><p class=ql-align-justify>In today's age of flimsy comic-book characters passing for superheroes it is life-affirming-hell it's vital-to recall the red-blooded humanity James Jones poured into his 1951 National Book Award-winning <em>From Here to Eternity</em>. At its core is an iconoclastic love story...all of which Moore soundly spells out in engaging and impressively researched detail.</p><p>-STEPHEN M. SILVERMAN author of <em>The Catskills: Its History and How It Changed America</em>; and <em>Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies</em></p><p><br></p>