I think that is where poetry reading becomes such an individual thing. I mean I have friend who like poets who just don't say anything to me at all, I mean they seem to me rather ordinary and pedestrian.

Laughlin's outdoor activities helped other literary friendships though; for many years he and Kenneth Rexroth took an annual camping trip together in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. At times Laughlin's skiing got in the way of his business. Biography
He was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania the son of Henry Hughart and Marjory Rea Laughlin.