James Laughlin (1914-1997) - poet, ladies' man, heir to a steel fortune, and the founder of New Directions Publishing - left behind files crammed full of photos, letters, clippings, and notes. The Way It Wasn't is the gorgeous scrapbook of that collection, selected and edited by Mr. Laughlin's son-in-law, Daniel Javitch, with Barbara Epler, Editor-in-Chief of New Directions.