In January 1955, on a two-week leave, Podhoretz visited Jacqueline. She had fallen in love with Huw Wheldon, whom she had known since 1951, when, as head of the Welsh Arts Council, he had helped organize the Festival of Britain, for which he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He was six years older than Jacqueline – her vanished father's name had also been Huw – just as she was seven years older than Podhoretz. Wheldon was therefore thirteen years older than Podhoretz, which initially made the younger man feel awkward, but they soon got on exceedingly well and eventually became each other's best friend.

Huw and Jacqueline were to marry in the fall of 1956, and Norman and Midge Decter directly followed suit. They would comprise a fascinating foursome, the men fraternally bonded and the women intimate, too. The ocean between the couples was in one way a blessing, for it required a correspondence, the women writing especially splendid letters. They would see each other in London or New York and would take adoptive interest in each other's children – just as those children, “mad for each other,” would share a kind of cousinly bond.

Wheldon's father was a prominent Welsh educator, and the family had led a very chapel-centered life. Deeply Presbyterian, Huw seemed to Podhoretz to “know the Bible by heart.