Notable Pairings

Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson

Holmes's singular focus on analytical method and Watson's warmth and social intelligence produced a pairing in which competence and humanity together accomplished what either alone could not.

Hermione Granger & Ron Weasley

Hermione's systematic preparation and Ron's loyalty and social warmth create a pairing in which disciplined competence and genuine human attachment are both present and both necessary.

Rosa Parks & Fred Rogers

Parks's refusal to accept unjust constraint and Rogers's unconditional welcome of every child represent different expressions of moral seriousness, one confrontational and one tender, both transformative in their respective domains.

Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash

Cash's truth-telling music, rooted in principled conviction, and June's warmth and grounded devotion formed a partnership that rescued him from addiction and produced some of country music's most enduring work. She gave him a reason to continue when his reasons had run out. He wrote that he fell into a ring of fire and she was the water.

Robert Browning & Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Browning's dramatic monologue and psychological complexity, together with Elizabeth's emotionally direct love poetry, produced a Victorian partnership in which intellectual force and warmth were carried by different people. Her Sonnets from the Portuguese remain the clearest statement of what the relationship meant to her. He escaped a sad house with her, and she escaped a worse one.

Napoleon Bonaparte & Josephine de Beauharnais

Napoleon's relentless drive toward conquest and Josephine's social grace and warmth produced a pairing in which ambition and charm served each other, until the political requirement of an heir dissolved a marriage he continued to mourn. He divorced her and married an Austrian archduchess. His last word was reportedly her name.

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel

Simon's literary lyrical intelligence and Garfunkel's ability to make a song feel like a private confession produced a sound more emotionally direct than either would have been alone. The Sound of Silence required Simon's words and Garfunkel's voice in equal measure. They have been unable to agree on this for sixty years.

Leonard Cohen & Marianne Ihlen

Cohen's sustained examination of love's spiritual weight and Ihlen's warmth and generous presence gave him the stability from which he wrote some of his most enduring early work. Their relationship lasted years; their friendship lasted decades. His letter to her as she was dying in 2016, telling her he would follow soon, is perhaps the finest thing he ever wrote.