"In The Lost Prince Michael Mewshaw sets down one of the most
gripping stories of friendship I've ever read." --Daniel Menaker, author
of My Mistake: A Memoir
Pat Conroy was America's poet laureate of family dysfunction. A
larger-than-life character and the author of such classics as The
Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, Conroy was remembered by
everybody for his energy, his exuberance, and his self-lacerating humor.
Michael Mewshaw's The Lost Prince is an intimate memoir of his
friendship with Pat Conroy, one that involves their families and those
days in Rome when they were both young--when Conroy went from being a
popular regional writer to an international bestseller. Family snapshots
beautifully illustrate that time. Shortly before his forty-ninth
birthday, Conroy telephoned Mewshaw to ask a terrible favor. With great
reluctance, Mewshaw did as he was asked--and never saw Pat Conroy again.
Although they never managed to reconcile their differences completely,
Conroy later urged Mewshaw to write about "me and you and what happened
. . . i know it would cause much pain to both of us. but here is what
that story has that none of your others have." The Lost Prince is
Mewshaw's fulfillment of a promise.