B. H. Friedman (1926–2011), the writer, critic, and important chronicler of the New York School, shared an unusually long personal and intellectual relationship with Helen Frankenthaler. Friedman recalled that he had known Frankenthaler since childhood, before either became involved in the postwar New York art world, and he later encountered her again through the circle surrounding the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. As Frankenthaler emerged as one of the most significant painters of the second generation of Abstract Expressionism, Friedman became an early and sympathetic interpreter of her work, writing the essay on Frankenthaler for his influential 1959 book School of New York: Some Younger Artists and later publishing further criticism on her during the 1960s. Their connection was more than simply that of critic and artist: Friedman's papers preserve extensive correspondence with Frankenthaler dating from 1956 to 2005, as well as correspondence with Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell together, documenting a friendship that endured for nearly half a century. Friedman's writing on Frankenthaler therefore grew from an unusually intimate knowledge of both the artist and the New York School milieu in which her work developed, positioning him as an important contemporary witness to her emergence and subsequent career.