Biography: writers Books
De Gruyter Peter Huchel
Book Synopsis Wolf Biermann lernte von ihm das »Schweigen zwischen den Worten« und widmete ihm mit »Ermutigung« sein berühmtestes Lied. Joseph Brodsky erkannte an seinem Gesicht, dass er einen wirklichen Dichter vor sich hatte. Und Marcel Reich-Ranicki zählte ihn zu den ganz großen Lyrikern des 20. Jahrhunderts: Peter Huchels (1903–1981) Erscheinung hinterließ Eindruck bei denen, die ihm begegneten, die Wirkung seiner Verse auf Leser und Autoren ist ungebrochen. Dass sie nichts von ihrer Kraft verloren haben, verdankt sich Huchels Treue zu seinen Anfängen, zu Mensch, Natur und Landschaft seiner märkischen Heimat. Dort wächst er auf dem Gutshof der Großeltern auf, dorthin kehrt er nach Jahren in Paris, Wien und Berlin, nach Krieg und Gefangenschaft zurück und begründet als Chefredakteur den legendären Ruf der Zeitschrift »Sinn und Form«, des »geheimen Journals der Nation«. Und dort wird er nach seiner Absetzung und Isolierung zum widerständigen Einzelgänger, zum Mythos. Matthias Weichelt gelingt in einem luziden Essay die Verschränkung von Einzigartigkeit und Zauber des dichterischen Werkes mit Huchels Leben, das im Jahre »neunzehnhunderttraurig« beginnt und von den Ambivalenzen und Katastrophen des Jahrhunderts gezeichnet ist.
£19.00
Harrassowitz Verlag Die Bibliothek des Freiherrn Wolfgang Heribert
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£57.80
Harrassowitz Verlag Mori Mari 19031987 A Japanese Author and Her Literary Alter Egos
£66.30
Herder Verlag GmbH Rainer Maria Rilke
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£23.40
Universitätsverlag Winter Johann Anton Leisewitz 17521806
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£52.70
Herzsprung-Verlag Schnee, der auf die Felder fällt: Geschichten und
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£12.00
Papierfresserchens Mtm-Verlag Und was ich dir noch sagen wollte ... Band 2
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£12.75
Herzsprung-Verlag Eins, zwei, drei - Erziehung ist doch (keine)
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£11.25
Papierfresserchens MTM-VE Mein Opa ... und ich
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£9.98
Papierfresserchens Mtm-Verlag / Herzsprung-Verlag Leben pur Frühlingsgefühle
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£11.61
Papierfresserchens Mtm-Verlag Meine Geschwister ... und ich
£12.18
Papierfresserchens Mtm-Verlag Fehlgeschlagen Die Kunst des Scheiterns
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£11.24
Anagrama H. P. Lovecraft
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£15.94
Adrian Aguilar Truman Capote Erweiterte Biografie
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£21.37
Bloomsbury Academic The World Is Not Enough
£18.99
Oxford University Press Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy XI
Book SynopsisFor over 100 years, the British Academy has published Biographical Memoirs - extended obituaries - of its deceased Fellows. Collectively these memoirs make up a chapter in the intellectual history of Britain, and are used as a source by biographers and historians. These memoirs have previously been published annually within the Proceedings of the British Academy, most recently as separate volumes within the series. New Biographical Memoirs will now be made available online by the British Academy as an open-access resource; but they will still also be published in an annual hardback volume, though no longer in the Proceedings series.This latest annual volume celebrates the lives of 24 scholars: Raymond Allchin, Carmen Blacker, Ian Brownlie, John Burrow, Pierre Chaplais, Kenneth Dover, Philippa Foot, Norman Gash, John Gould, Margaret Gowing, John Griffith, Rupert Hall, Marie Boas Hall, Ian Jack, George Kane, Neil MacCormick, Robert Markus, John North, Roy Porter, Tony Quinton, Geoffrey RTable of ContentsFRANK RAYMOND ALLCHIN ; CARMEN ELIZABETH BLACKER ; IAN BROWNLIE ; JOHN WYNN BURROW ; PIERRE CHAPLAIS ; KENNETH JAMES DOVER ; PHILIPPA RUTH FOOT ; NORMAN GASH ; JOHN PHILIP ALGERNON GOULD ; MARGARET MARY GOWING ; JOHN ANEURIN GREY GRIFFITH ; ALFRED RUPERT HALL & MARIE BOAS HALL ; IAN ROBERT JAMES JACK ; GEORGE KANE ; DONALD NEIL MacCORMICK ; ROBERT AUSTIN MARKUS ; JOHN DAVID NORTH ; ROY PORTER ; ANTHONY MEREDITH QUINTON ; GEOFFREY EDWIN RICKMAN ; ALFRED WILLIAM BRIAN SIMPSON ; ROBERT McLACHLAN WILSON ; ROBERT IVOR WOODS
£85.50
The University of Chicago Press Camus Portrait of a Moralist Emersion Emergent
Book SynopsisDecades after his death, Albert Camus (1913-60) is still regarded as one of the most influential and fascinating intellectuals of the twentieth century. This biography explores the connections between his literary work, his philosophical writings, and his politics. It also highlights the contemporary relevance of an extraordinary man.Trade Review"A model of a kind of intelligent writing that should be in greater supply. Bronner manages judiciously to combine an appreciation for the strengths of Camus and non-rancorous criticism of his weaknesses.... As a personal and opinionated book, it invites the reader into an engaging and informative dialogue." - American Political Science Review "This concise, lively, and remarkably evenhanded treatmetn of the life and work of Albert Camus weaves together biography, philosophical analysis, and political commentary." - Science & Society "Bronner succeeds in explaining Camus' unique sense of personal responsibility and his lucidity, tolerance, and honesty." - Library Journal"
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press Mark Twain Gods Fool
Book SynopsisAfter laughing their way through his classic and beloved depictions of nineteenth-century American life, few readers would suspect that Mark Twain's last years were anything but happy and joyful. They would be wrong. This title reveals that Twain ended his life as a frustrated writer plagued by paranoia.Trade Review"Certainly one of the most reliable and readable books in the whole huge library of Twain biographical studies. Hill makes sense of a confusing and often contradictory set of data. This is a notable, graceful, convincing book." - "New Republic" "Fills a great, long-standing need for a thoroughly researched book about Mark Twain's twilight years.... Splendidly, grippingly written and excellently documented.... Likely to be a standard work for as long as anyone can foresee." - "Choice"
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press Alice in Space
Book SynopsisAlice in Space reveals the contexts within which the Alice books first lived, bringing back the zest to jokes lost over time and poignancy to hidden references.Trade Review"The title of this wonderful work--alert and witty in its attention to details, capacious and learned in its opening up of the realms of knowledge Carroll lived among and engaged with--evokes outer space and rightly so. Alice travels underground and through a mirror and beyond any earth we know. But she inhabits other zones, too. She lives in our minds. She reads the signs of a foreign world and is herself read by others. All of this comes richly alive for us in Beer's writing. We are as close to 'adamant eager Alice' as we shall ever be."--Michael Wood, author of Literature and the Taste of Knowledge "While Lewis Carroll's importance to the history of children's literature has long been recognized, this book convincingly establishes Carroll and the Alice books at the very heart of Victorian literature and culture. Here we learn how the Alice books engage in active conversations with the ideas of great minds like Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, Max Muller, John Stuart Mill, and Emily Bronte. Beer brilliantly reveals Carroll to be, like his famous protagonist, always curious, always enquiring."--Jan Susina, author of The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature "Offering sensitive and judicious insights into Lewis Carroll--the man, the mathematician, and the writer--Beer takes us on a vertiginous voyage through the wonderlands of his creation. She explores the scientific and ethical questions of his time and reveals how the comic--and dark--fantasy of the Alice books often conveys the subtlety of his dissenting views. Beer always writes with stylish, consummate eloquence. Alice in Space exemplifies how flights of passionate sympathy and imagination can also be acts of scrupulous inquiry and immaculate research."--Marina Warner, author of Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights "Just when we all thought we knew the Alice books, along comes Gillian Beer, who opens up not just new doors, but whole new corridors and gardens down in Carroll's sideways world. Alice in Space is a joy: playful, brilliant, and wise."--Rebecca Stott, author of Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press Lydia Maria Child
Book SynopsisNow in paperback, a compelling biography of Lydia Maria Child, one of nineteenth-century America's most courageous abolitionists. By 1830, Lydia Maria Child had established herself as something almost unheard of in the American nineteenth century: a beloved and self-sufficient female author. Best known today for the immortal poem Over the River and through the Wood, Child had become famous at an early age for spunky self-help books and charming children's stories. But in 1833, Child shocked her readers by publishing a scathing book-length argument against slavery in the United Statesa book so radical in its commitment to abolition that friends abandoned her, patrons ostracized her, and her book sales plummeted. Yet Child soon drew untold numbers to the abolitionist cause, becoming one of the foremost authors and activists of her generation. Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life tells the story of what brought Child to this moment and the extraordinary life she lived in respoTrade Review"Moland wants us to think hard about what we owe each other as citizens and human beings. In that sense she has produced a call to arms, an almanac for activists, as well as an ample, honest, and immensely readable book." * Wall Street Journal *“[Lydia Maria Child was] a remarkable woman who needs to be remembered as one of the nineteenth century’s most influential Abolitionists. . . . A work of exemplary scholarship, Moland’s definitive biography of Child is extremely well written and invites both an academic and general readership." * Booklist *“After the 2016 presidential election. . . Moland discovered Child, a woman, she later learned, ‘unwilling to accept the conventional wisdom of her time and unable to abide by its norms.’ . . . Moland began to wonder, ‘What could the example of her life teach me?’ And 'does the world need another white hero?' Moland’s Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life answers. . . . 'We might not need more white heroes,' she writes, 'but I have come to believe that white Americans like me need more examples like hers.'" * New York Review of Books *“Lydia Maria Child was one of the few great intellectual freedom fighters in nineteenth-century America. Moland’s magisterial book takes us in and through Child’s rich world and life in an exemplary manner. Don’t miss this powerful text on a giant still so relevant to our bleak times.” * Cornel West, author of 'Race Matters' *“This is a biography on a mission. As Moland shows us, to discover Child is to discover ourselves, revealing the best and worst of who we are. Moland is at her best when eviscerating the flawed arguments of Child’s opponents, arguments that, she reminds us, are ubiquitous even today. This is a brilliantly written book: stylish, witty, barbed yet sympathetic.” * Laura Dassow Walls, author of 'Henry David Thoreau: A Life' *“Moland’s exuberant new biography gives us a Lydia Maria Child for the twenty-first century: a woman of fierce intelligence and astonishing ingenuity who never gave up the struggle to right the wrongs of enslavement and its legacy of race prejudice. Moland writes with a philosopher’s instinct to question both herself and the evidence she uncovers, yielding an intimate portrait that is also a history of America’s centuries-long reckoning with its founding principles.” * Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of 'Margaret Fuller: A New American Life' *"Readers will find this an affecting, emotional story." * Open Letters Review *"Throughout this thoughtful, soulful work, one feels the author alternately energized by seeing her own ideological proclivities echoed in her story, validated in finding the political predicaments of her own time anticipated, and disturbed when her 19th-century subject fails to fully embody 21st-century values... Like a salvage crew, Moland has scoured an important lost life from the fathomless depths of the past." * Los Angeles Review of Books *"There are dozens of wonderful stories in this stew of a book. . . . Lydia Maria Child may or may not be 'truly living' in another world now, but in the pages of this book she is certainly alive, vibrant and inspiring." * The Nation *"Moland's biography is ambitious, but she does an exceptional job of establishing how Lydia Maria Child continues to speak to us two hundred years later." * The New England Quarterly *"Moland’s highly readable biography depicts Child as a woman who approached abolitionism with a religious sense of duty. She may have abandoned her churchly faith, but she never gave up her pursuit of transcendent truth. This biography ought to restore Child’s name to the pantheon of American reformers." * Christian Century *"Moland provides a thorough, much-needed examination of 19th-century American author and activist Lydia Maria Child. . . Moland’s work provides valuable insight into this era and one of its greatest activists. Recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations A Personal Prologue 1 By an American 2 A Love Not Ashamed of Economy 3 Let Us Not Flatter Ourselves 4 Of Mobs and Marriages 5 How Does it Feel to Be a Question? 6 On Resistance 7 The Workshop of Reform 8 On Quitting and Not Giving Up 9 First Duties First, and How to Do Your Second Duties Too 10 Keep Firing 11 On Delicate Ears and Indelicate Truths 12 A Warning or an Example 13 No Time for Ovations 14 Truly Living Now Epilogue Acknowledgments Illustration Credits List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
£26.60
Columbia University Press Virginia Woolf
Book SynopsisWinner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt award for biography, this remarkable portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf’s relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. Forrester weaves a colorful, intense drama that forces readers to rethink their understanding of Woolf, her writing, and her world.Trade ReviewVirginia Woolf was the object of considerable mystery. Viviane Forrester not only tells us about this mystery but clarifies it. At the beginning, the biographer announces that she will shatter equivocal and false portraits. She does precisely that. The result marks a decisive break in the knowledge we thought we had of this English writer. Forrester crosses the threshold of truth. Without reproving those who wrote before her, knowing what was said and how, Forrester provides a staggering analysis of the youth, marriage, work, and world of Woolf. She tracks, close up, the internal defense mechanisms and means of protection that veil the truth. In a style as poetic as the novelist/poetess deserves, Forrester throws light on the life and the death, Woolf's two tragedies, and reveals the price of her scintillating work. -- Alice Ferney Le Figaro Over the years, Viviane Forrester has read and annotated all the journals of Woolf, the five volumes of her correspondence, including, among other things, the letters from her father, Leslie Stephen, and those from her sister, Vanessa Bell, whom Virginia idolized and envied her entire life. Such a considerable quantity of fragments of a vast, complex mosaic, assembled here by the biographer, provides a new vision of Woolf. We discover her close up, fleeing, uncatchable, by turn fragile, ferocious, resplendent, or perverse... In a lively and limpid style, Forrester attacks first the myths that have calcified around Woolf. First among them, that of her 'madness.' Under the sharp pen of Forrester, therefore, Virginia is not mad, nor is she a martyr. -- Lila Azam Zanganeh LE MONDE An engrossing, intimate, and deeply empathetic portrayal of a brilliant and enigmatic woman. Kirkus Reviews Nimbly moving from one fragmentary impression to another, Forrester challenges the idea (proposed by Woolf's nephew, Quentin Bell, in his biography of her) that Woolf was afflicted with mental illness and suicidal impulses when she was a teenager. Instead, Forrester offers the portrait of a woman who strove to strip away any illusions and capture the rhythms of reality in her writings. Publishers Weekly Intriguing... Illuminating... Readers interested in Virginia Woolf, the Bloomsbury circle, and early twentieth-century modernist writers will require this biography. Library Journal [A] brilliant, provocative biography. -- Jocelyn McClurg USA Today [Virginia Woolf: A Portrait] offers unexpected insights and useful challenges to settled ideas about Woolf, her friendships, her marriage, and her imagination. -- Anne Fernald Open Letters Monthly A provocative portrait, richly woven with Woolf's distinctive voice and Forrester's faithful echo. -- Maureen McCarthy Star TribuneTable of ContentsPart 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Abbreviations Notes Works Cited Index
£69.26
Columbia University Press Memories of Mount Qilai
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewYang Mu's memoir provides rich insight into the author's personal experience, merging human psychology, history, geography and Taiwan's topography into a thick portrait of life in Taiwan during the middle of the twentieth century. -- Paul Manfredi, Pacific Lutheran University Memories of Mount Qilai is a landmark in Taiwanese literature as well as in modern Chinese prose. It has reinvented the genre of literary autobiography by welding together a paean to the beauty of indigenous landscapes and peoples, a penetrating look at the social and political transformations in postwar Taiwan, an honest and moving bildungsroman, and, above all, a poetic language that is supple and sinewy at the same time. Written by one of the greatest poets writing in Chinese in our time, Memories of Mount Qilai is a Mount Everest in world literature. -- Michelle Yeh, University of California, Davis Yang Mu is one of the greatest living poets in the Chinese language. His Memories of Mount Qilai is a key work in which he recounts his formative years in Hualien. Memory and identity are indelibly linked; subtle observations of inner states of mind and the outer world are captured in his neoclassicist, poetically charged prose. A classic of autobiographical writing from Taiwan. -- Goran Malmqvist, member of the Swedish Academy From the pen of one of the foremost poets writing in Chinese today, Yang Mu's Memories of Mount Qilai plumbs the interior depths of the man and exterior highlights of his homeland, Taiwan. Its musings are at different times humorous, curious, sickened, and angry. No other book like it exists in modern Chinese, and as such it typifies the unique character of this fine author. -- Christopher Lupke, Washington State University Beautifully rendered into English by the translation team of John and Yingtsih Balcom. This is an impressive feat considering that the power of Yang's prose emerges from its subtle descriptions and lyrical imagery. Taiwan ReviewTable of ContentsTranslator's Preface Acknowledgments Mountain Wind and Ocean Rain Return to Degree Zero Long Ago, When We Started
£38.25
Columbia University Press Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry
Book SynopsisKonstantin Batyushkov was one of the great poets of the Golden Age of Russian literature. Peter France interweaves Batyushkov’s life and writings, presenting masterful new translations of his work with the compelling story of Batyushkov’s career as a soldier, diplomat, and poet and his tragic decline into mental illness at the age of thirty-four.Trade ReviewFor fans of Russian poetry, and especially for Russophone poets, Batyushkov (1787–1855) is a vital figure who wrote exquisite verse and helped to usher in what is known as the Golden Age of Russian poetry. . . . Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry interweaves translations of poetry (plus excerpts from prose essays and personal letters) with history and biography. . . . Poets and general readers should appreciate this volume as much as teachers and scholars who can now quote elegant translations. -- Sibelan Forrester * Los Angeles Review of Books *Writings From the Golden Age of Russian Poetry by Konstantin Batyushkov is far from a straightforward anthology of poems. It is a biographical essay into which are dispersed more than sixty translations, in whole or in part. (The original Russian is not included.) The reader comes to the poetry by way of the prose. The latter ranging from France’s informative narrative to Batyushkov’s own essays and letters. -- Jim Kates * The Arts Fuse *[Konstantin Batyushkov] did for the Russian language what Petrarch did for Italian. -- Alexander PushkinKonstantin Batyushkov was one of the great Russian poets of the nineteenth century, and Peter France has done a superlative job in bringing his work to an English-speaking audience. The volume deserves praise for its careful yet mellifluous translations of verse and for a biography that provides a rich cultural and historical context. -- Michael Wachtel, Princeton UniversityPeter France’s book is a unique journey into Batyushkov’s turbulent and tragic life, expertly placed within the context of the equally turbulent Russian nineteenth century. Just as importantly, France's virtuoso translations introduce Batyushkov in English poetic language as it exists now. -- Ilya Kutik, Northwestern UniversityThis selective anthology of Batyushkov’s poetry with commentary by Peter France is a welcome complement to Ilya Z. Serman’s study of the poet’s life and works. -- Carrol F. Coates, Independent Scholar * Slavic and East European Journal *The translations of shorter poems are often equimetrical and also reproduce rhyme. . . The longer poems are rendered with a grace and clarity that takes them beyond the standard of cribs. Comments on form supplement translation helpfully. Nothing, one imagines, could work better in classes on Russian poetry of the Pushkin period. * Slavonic and East European Review *Table of ContentsContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction1. Vologda to St. Petersburg2. War and Peace3. The City and the Country4. Back to War5. The Return of Odysseus6. Arzamas and the Essays7. To Italy8. Into the DarkIndex
£27.00
Columbia University Press Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry
Book SynopsisKonstantin Batyushkov was one of the great poets of the Golden Age of Russian literature. Peter France interweaves Batyushkov’s life and writings, presenting masterful new translations of his work with the compelling story of Batyushkov’s career as a soldier, diplomat, and poet and his tragic decline into mental illness at the age of thirty-four.Trade ReviewFor fans of Russian poetry, and especially for Russophone poets, Batyushkov (1787–1855) is a vital figure who wrote exquisite verse and helped to usher in what is known as the Golden Age of Russian poetry. . . . Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry interweaves translations of poetry (plus excerpts from prose essays and personal letters) with history and biography. . . . Poets and general readers should appreciate this volume as much as teachers and scholars who can now quote elegant translations. -- Sibelan Forrester * Los Angeles Review of Books *Writings From the Golden Age of Russian Poetry by Konstantin Batyushkov is far from a straightforward anthology of poems. It is a biographical essay into which are dispersed more than sixty translations, in whole or in part. (The original Russian is not included.) The reader comes to the poetry by way of the prose. The latter ranging from France’s informative narrative to Batyushkov’s own essays and letters. -- Jim Kates * The Arts Fuse *[Konstantin Batyushkov] did for the Russian language what Petrarch did for Italian. -- Alexander PushkinKonstantin Batyushkov was one of the great Russian poets of the nineteenth century, and Peter France has done a superlative job in bringing his work to an English-speaking audience. The volume deserves praise for its careful yet mellifluous translations of verse and for a biography that provides a rich cultural and historical context. -- Michael Wachtel, Princeton UniversityPeter France’s book is a unique journey into Batyushkov’s turbulent and tragic life, expertly placed within the context of the equally turbulent Russian nineteenth century. Just as importantly, France's virtuoso translations introduce Batyushkov in English poetic language as it exists now. -- Ilya Kutik, Northwestern UniversityThis selective anthology of Batyushkov’s poetry with commentary by Peter France is a welcome complement to Ilya Z. Serman’s study of the poet’s life and works. -- Carrol F. Coates, Independent Scholar * Slavic and East European Journal *The translations of shorter poems are often equimetrical and also reproduce rhyme. . . The longer poems are rendered with a grace and clarity that takes them beyond the standard of cribs. Comments on form supplement translation helpfully. Nothing, one imagines, could work better in classes on Russian poetry of the Pushkin period. * Slavonic and East European Review *Table of ContentsContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction1. Vologda to St. Petersburg2. War and Peace3. The City and the Country4. Back to War5. The Return of Odysseus6. Arzamas and the Essays7. To Italy8. Into the DarkIndex
£15.29
Columbia University Press Jacques Schiffrin
Book SynopsisIn this first biography of Jacques Schiffrin, the founder of Pléiade Editions in Paris and cofounder of Pantheon Books in New York, Amos Reichman tells the story of a great publisher and his travails across two continents.Trade ReviewA fitting tribute to a man who did so much for literature—and who could have done even more, had he been allowed. * Foreword Reviews *In Jacques Schiffrin: A Publisher in Exile, from Pléiade to Pantheon, Amos Reichman provides a fine account of the events in the turbulent life of a gifted man who sought only to practice his trade in peace and tranquility -- William Cloonan, Florida State University * H-France Review *Despite fleeing first Tsarist Russia and then Nazi-occupied France, Jacques Schiffrin succeeded in being a major literary influence on two continents, establishing first the best edition of French classics and then a key publishing house in New York which would flourish still more under his son. It is splendid that we now at last have a lively and informative biography of this remarkable man. -- Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial AfricaJacques Schiffrin, exiled from his native Russia after the Revolution, created a great career as an innovative publisher in Paris but had to start all over again as a refugee in New York in the 1940s, aged almost 50. Bravo to Amos Reichman for writing the first biography of this attractive yet tragic figure, whose life embodies the shocks and displacements caused by the catastrophic history of the twentieth century. -- Susan Rubin Suleiman, author of The Némirovsky Question: The Life, Death, and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in Twentieth-Century FranceExile is often a state of alienation. Sometimes it can be an adventure, a successful negotiation between old and new worlds. Amos Reichman skillfully recounts one such miracle, providing—through the melancholic, inspired figure of Jacques Schiffrin—a transatlantic microhistory of publishing and literary production from the 1930s through the 1950s that is precise and informed, rich and, at times, funny. -- Emmanuelle Loyer, Sciences-Po ParisAmos Reichman’s Jacques Schiffrin is a sensitively written and deeply researched version of an important story. Reichman’s account beautifully captures the pathos of exile. -- Evan Brier, University of Minnesota DuluthReichman's archival work brings a fresh perspective on a major yet little-known publisher and offers a sophisticated overview of the literary and cultural landscape in France before and during the Second World War. -- Lise Jaillant, Loughborough UniversityBeautiful book written with love and dedication, pretty warm, for everyone. Highly recommended. * Al Femminile Blog *Reichman provides a fine account of the events in the turbulent life of a gifted man. * H-France Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword, by Robert O. PaxtonIntroduction1. From War to Exile2. A Publisher in New York3. The Impossible ReturnEpilogueNotesArchives ConsultedIndex
£22.50
Columbia University Press German Jew Muslim Gay The Life and Times of Hugo
Book SynopsisHugo Marcus (18801966) was a man of many names and many identities. In German, Jew, Muslim, Gay, Marc David Baer uses Marcus's life and work to shed new light on a striking range of subjects, including German Jewish history and anti-Semitism, Islam in Europe, Muslim-Jewish relations, and the history of the gay rights struggle.Trade ReviewThis biography succeeds in contextualizing his ideas, while leaving the man himself, rightly perhaps, still somewhat in the shadows. * Times Literary Supplement *Offers a full look at a writer and thinker who successfully lived in and moved among different worlds. * Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review *Baer delivers an inspiring story that changes our perception about larger historiographical issues. -- Javier Samper Vendrell * German History *This extraordinary biography of Hugo Marcus reads like an amazing detective novel of twentieth-century history. Baer recreates the life and times of a gay Jewish intellectual in Germany who converts to Islam and whose life is saved from the Nazis by the Muslim community of Berlin. The story is a thrilling page turner that upends our assumptions about Jewishness, homosexuality, Muslim-Jewish relations, orientalism, and the challenges of modernity. -- Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth CollegeThat identity is fluid is no surprise in the twenty-first century: that such fluid identities collided with changing realities in the rapid transition from Imperial to Republican to Nazi Germany in the early twentieth century may also not surprise the reader. Yet the story of Hugo Marcus seems unique: we have other accounts of gay Jews fighting their double stigmatization as well as the lives of German Jews attracted to or indeed converting to Islam during this period. Yet in the tale of Hugo Marcus, elegantly told by Marc David Baer, we have a biography that links complex questions of identity to institutional histories and their dislocation in the German-speaking world. Ending with his ashes strewn on a paupers' grave in Bern, Marcus’s tale is moving, exemplary in its uniqueness for the transitions of German Jewish intellectuals and perhaps indicative of paths yet to be followed by other marginalized individuals in our ever darkening age of rising antisemitism, Islamophobia, and homophobia. -- Sander Gilman, coauthor of Are Racists Crazy? How Prejudice, Racism, and Antisemitism Became Markers of InsanityPerhaps most significant among the important contributions of Baer’s brilliant biography of the queer, German-Jewish convert to Islam, Hugo Marcus, is the new perspective he offers on the history of Jewish-Muslim relations. Not only Marcus’s engagement with Islam but also that of other Jewish converts to Islam—as well as that of Jewish 'Orientalists'—allow Baer to demonstrate the mutual 'Semitic' affinity of Jews and Muslims. -- Robert Beachy, author of Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern IdentityIt is indubitable that any reader of this extraordinary biography will be rewarded with a profound insight into the nature of religious passion and its intersection with sexual desire, in particular among marginalized, oppressed, persecuted, and exiled individuals such as Marcus. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *The book reveals fascinating facets of Marcus’s life as a Jewish, Muslim, and gay German. Yet Marcus belonged to all and none of these categories. If anything, his life and death are a testament to the failure of compartmentalizing identity and intellectual history. * German Historical Institute London Bulletin *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Goethe as Pole Star1. Fighting for Gay Rights in Berlin, 1900–19252. Queer Convert: Protestant Islam in Weimar Germany, 1925–19333. A Jewish Muslim in Nazi Berlin, 1933–19394. Who Writes Lives: Swiss Refuge, 1939–19655. Hans Alienus: Yearning, Gay Writer, 1948–1965Conclusion: A Goethe Mosque for BerlinNotesBibliographyIndex
£76.00
University of Illinois Press Black Poets of the United States
Book SynopsisAcclaimed upon its initial American release,Black Poets of the United Statescontinued to spark comment and analysis for years afterward. Jean Wagner's masterpiece delves into the vital union of racial and religious feeling in the Black poets who emerged from 1890 to 1940.Beginning with an analysis of slavery's impact on the Black psyche and religious feeling, Wagner examines the evolution of Black lyrical expression to the end of the nineteenth century. He then moves into a focused study of Paul Laurence Dunbar and his contemporaries, emphasizing their struggle against prevalent stereotypes that stemmed from minstrelsy, popular song, and southern white writing. His look at the twentieth-century Black Renaissance explores the works, themes, concerns, and experiences of poets Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Sterling Brown, and Langston Hughes.Deeply sensitive and remarkably comprehensiveBlack Poets of the United Statescombines encyclopedic knowledge with Trade Review"A monumental work."--Langston Hughes"A matchless study. . . . the best full length study of Black American poetry that has seen print. Wagner has evaluated the major poets from 1890 to 1940 (Dunbar to Hughes) with a superior critical discernment that is wedded to a sociological and psychological approach. . . . The distinguishing factors in Wagner's study are his aggressive grappling with two-sided issues; his lucid, metaphorical prose style; his thorough research; and judicious, carefully reasoned conclusions."--New York Times Book ReviewTable of ContentsFOREWORD xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix PREFACE xxi Chapter One: INTRODUCTION 3 1. The Negro in the United States 4 Slaves and Free Men 5 The Negro “Inferior and Subservient” 9 The Mark of Oppression 14 2. The Origins of Black Poetry 16 Written Poetry in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 16 Folk Poetry 26 PART ONE: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR AND HIS TIME 37 Chapter Two: THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN TRADITION IN DUNBAR’S TIME 39 1. The Minstrels 40 2. The Plantation Tradition in Poetry 48 Irwin Russell 51 Joel Chandler Harris 59 Thomas Nelson Page and Armistead C. Gordon 62 3. The South’s Revenge 66 Chapter Three: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR 73 1. Biography 73 Childhood Years 73 Early Successes 75 Fame and Its Drawbacks 77 The End 79 2. Dunbar and the Plantation Tradition 80 Dunbar and the Plantation 81 Dunbar and the South 88 The Poet and His Theme 92 3. Race Consciousness and History 95 Past and Present 96 The Search for Heroes 98 Dunbar and Racial Injustice 101 4. The Poet of the People 104 The Problem of Dialect 105 Dunbar and the Negro Popular Temperament 111 The Themes of Dunbar’s Popular Poetry 115 5. The Lyricism of HEARTBREAK 118 Pessimism and Religious Doubts 121 Chapter Four: DUNBAR’S CONTEMPORARIES 127 1. James Edwin Campbell 129 The Theme of Interracial Love 130 The People in Campbell’s Poetry 133 2. Daniel Webster Davis 138 3. J. Mord Allen 141 PART TWO: THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE 147 Chapter Five: THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE 149 1. New Forces 151 The Role of W. E. B. Du Bois 151 Black Migrations 153 Radicalism and the New Spirit 155 The Rehabilitation of the Negro Past 157 2. The Problem of Self-Definition 160 The Discovery of the Negro and of Negro Art 162 Cultural Dualism and Its Problems 165 Art or Propaganda? 170 3. The Poetry of the Renaissance 172 The Poets and Their Public 173 The Poets and Their Themes 177 Poets in Conflict 190 Section A: IN SEARCH OF THE SPIRITUAL 195 Chapter Six: CLAUDE McKay 197 1. Biography 198 The Jamaican Years 198 The Years in the United States 201 Years of Vagabondage 201 Home to Harlem 203 2. The Jamaican Sources 204 Authenticity of Form 204 Realism of the Peasant Portraits 206 Primacy of the Earth 211 Rejection of the City 215 3. The Lyricism of Militancy 222 Racial Pride 223 Hatred 225 Target of Hatred: Evil 230 The Limits of Hatred 235 4. Exoticism and the Theme of Africa 236 5. Harlem and Negro Art 243 6. The Spiritual Journey 247 Chapter Seven: JEAN TOOMER 259 1. The Destiny of Jean Toomer 260 2. The Poetry of CANE, or, the Pilgrimage to the Origins 264 3. Beyond Race: “Blue Meridian” 272 Chapter Eight: COUNTEE CULLEN 283 1. Cullen’s Life 284 A Mysterious Childhood 284 The Productive Years 287 The Last Years 291 2. The Dictates of the Psyche 291 The Burden of Inferiority 293 Death the Liberator 297 Pride as Solace 299 3. Race and the African Homeland 301 Race in Cullen’s Poetic Universe 302 A Black among Whites 308 Garvey and the African Heritage 315 Africa as a Pagan Symbol 320 4. Christ as Symbol and Reality 329 Christ as a Sign of Self-Contradiction 330 Mysticism and Spiritual Experience 339 “The Black Christ”: A Spiritual Testament 341 Section B: IN SEARCH OF THE PEOPLE 349 Chapter Nine: JAMES WELDON JOHNSON 351 1. Biography 352 From Florida to Broadway 352 In the Service of Country and Race 354 2. Dunbar’s Disciple 356 Poetry in Dialect 356 Religious and Patriotic Conformism 358 3. Johnson and the New Spirit 365 4. Folklore and Race: Their Rehabilitation 372 The Condemnation of Dialect 375 The Experiment of God’s Trombones 377 Chapter Ten: LANGSTON HUGHES 385 1. Biography 386 The Restless Years 386 Early Successes 389 A Literature of Commitment 391 2. From Racial Romanticism to Jazz 393 Racial Romanticism 394 Rebellion: Through a Glass Jazzily 400 3. The Poetry of the Masses 416 The Social Setting of the Blues 417 Class Consciousness 426 Religion and the Masses 437 4. American Democracy: Promises and Reality 444 The American Dream 446 The Poet and Reality 454 5. Toward a Synthesis 461 Conclusion: Langston Hughes and Harlem 473 Chapter Eleven: STERLING BROWN 475 1. Folk Strength and Folk Frailties 476 2. The Tragic Universe of Sterling Brown 481 The Whites’ Conspiracy 482 The Black Man and His Fate 483 The Inanity of Faith 490 3. Means for Survival 496 Chapter Twelve: CONCLUSION 505 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 513 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT 537 INDEX 547
£18.04
University of Illinois Press Zane Grey
Book SynopsisThe first accurate and thorough biography of the man behind the myths of the Old WestTrade Review"Although fans of Zane Grey may be taken aback to discover certain characteristics or traits of this famous writer, what emerges from Pauly's text is an honest and straightforward account of the charms and foibles of a man who defined and lived his life as he saw fit."--Journal of the West
£26.09
University of Illinois Press The Picshuas of H. G. Wells
Book SynopsisH G Wells (1866-1946) was a literary lion throughout his career, publishing more than one hundred books, including classics such as "War of the Worlds", "The Invisible Man", and "The Time Machine". This title provides glimpses into Wells' moments of his personal and professional conflict and triumph.
£81.90
University of Illinois Press Oscar Wilde in America
Book SynopsisOscar Wilde's grand U.S. tour, captured in dozens of newspaper interviewsTrade Review"A generous and welcome sampling."--New York Review of Books "Highly recommended."--Choice"[A] rewarding, absorbing, and necessary book."--The Gay and Lesbian Review "Wilde was a source of fascination and provocation, and these assembled portraits reveal the rawness and the refinements, the pride and the anxieties, of American culture in the making during this important period. A vital and valuable book."--Eric Haralson, editor of Reading the Middle Generation Anew: Culture, Community, and Form in Twentieth-Century American Poetry"This stimulating work is an invaluable record of Wilde's speech, appearance, and demeanor. An excitingly fresh study of interest both to Wilde specialists and to general readers."--Donald Mead, chairman of the Oscar Wilde Society and editor of The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction; Interviews; 1 "Oscar Wilde's Arrival," New York World, 3 January 1882; 2 "Oscar Wilde," New York Evening Post, 4 January 1882; 3 "Our New York Letter," Philadelphia Inquirer, 4 January 1882; 4 "The Theories of a Poet," New York Tribune, 8 January 1882; 5 "The Science of the Beautiful," New York World, 8 January 1882; 6 "A Talk with Wilde," Philadelphia Press, 17 January 1882; 7 "The Aesthetic Bard," Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 January 1882; 8 "What Oscar Has to Say," Baltimore American, 20 January 1882, 4; 9 "Wilde and Forbes," New York Herald, 21 January 1882, 3; 10 "An Interview with the Poet," Albany Argus, 28 January 1882; 11 "Oscar Wilde," Boston Herald, 29 January 1882; 12 "The Aesthetic Apostle," Boston Globe, 29 January 1882; 13 Lilian Whiting, "They Will Show Him," Chicago Inter-Ocean, 10 February 1882; 14 "A Man of Culture Rare," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 8 February 1882; 15 "Wilde Sees the Falls," Buffalo Express, ca 9 February 1882; rpt Wheeling Register, 27 Feb 1882; 16 "The Apostle of Art," Chicago Inter-Ocean, 11 February 1882; 17 "Truly Aesthetic," Chicago Inter-Ocean, 13 February 1882; 18 "Wilde," Cleveland Leader, 20 February 1882; 19 "With Mr Oscar Wilde," Cincinnati Gazette, 21 February 1882; 20 "Oscar Wilde," Cincinnati Enquirer, 21 February 1882; 21 "Utterly Utter," St Louis Post-Dispatch, 25 February 1882; 22 "Speranza's Gifted Son," St Louis Globe-Democrat, 26 February 1882; 23 "Oscar As He Is," St Louis Republican, 26 February 1882; 24 "Oscar Wilde," Chicago Tribune, 1 March 1882; 25 "Philosophical Oscar," Chicago Times, 1 March 1882; 26 "David and Oscar," Chicago Tribune, 5 March 1882; 27 "Oscar Wilde in Omaha," Omaha Weekly Herald, 24 March 1882; 28 "Oscar Wilde: An Interview with the Apostle of Aestheticism," San Francisco Examiner, 27 Mar 1882; 29 "Oscar Wilde's Views," San Francisco Morning Call, 27 March 1882; 30 "Lo! The Aesthete," San Francisco Chronicle, 27 March 1882; 31 "Oscar Arrives," Sacramento Record-Union, 27 March 1882; 32 Mary Watson, "Oscar Wilde at Home," San Francisco Examiner, 9 April 1882; 33 "Oscar Wilde," Salt Lake Herald, 12 April 1882; 34 "Oscar Wilde," Denver Rocky Mountain News, 13 April 1882; 35 "Art and Aesthetics," Denver Tribune, 13 April 1882; 36 "What Mr Wilde Says about Himself," Manchester Examiner and Times; rpt New York Tribune, 11 June 1882; Chicago Tribune, 17 June 1882, 3; 37 "Aesthetic / An Interesting Interview with Oscar Wilde," Dayton Daily Democrat, 3 May 1882; 38 "Oscar Wilde's Return," New York World, 6 May 1882; 39 "Oscar Wilde in Montreal," Montreal Witness, 15 May 1882; 40 "Oscar Wilde: The Arch-Aesthete on Aestheticism," Montreal Star, 15 May 1882; 41 "Oscar Wilde," Toronto Globe, 25 May 1882; 42 "The Aesthete at the Art Exhibition," Toronto Globe, 26 May 1882; 43 "Oscar Wilde / Talks of Texas," New Orleans Picayune, 25 June 1882; 44 "Oscar Wilde: Arrival of the Great Aesthete," Atlanta Constitution, 5 July 1882; 45 "Oscar Dear, Oscar Dear!" Charleston News and Courier, 8 July 1882; 46 "Loveliness and Politeness," New York Sun, 20 August 1882; 47 "The Apostle of Beauty in Nova Scotia," Halifax Herald, 10 October 1882; 48 "Oscar Wilde Thoroughly Exhausted," New York Tribune, 27 November 1882; Appendix Wilde's lecture "Impressions of America"; Bibliography of Wilde interviews; Works Cited
£81.90
University of Illinois Press Shouting Down the Silence
Book SynopsisFrom the publication of his second novel, A Bad Man, in 1967 to his death in 1995, Elkin was tormented by the desire for both material and artistic success. This book presents a complete biography of Stanley Elkin, a pre-eminent novelist who consistently won high marks from critics.Trade Review"A fine exploration of [Stanley Elkin's] complex personality."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch"A thoroughly reliable portrait of a neglected novelist."--Kirkus Reviews"In a biography of focus and fire, Dougherty portrays Elkin ... in all his courage, persistence, and molten creativity and makes an open-and-shutcase for Elkin’s scouring, epoch-defining, and life-embracing books."--Booklist"A very fine literary biography as well as an extremely impressive work of literary scholarship. Dougherty does a remarkable job of presenting Elkin's more challenging texts in accessible terms, while eloquently and insightfully telling the story of Elkin's persistence in creating literature against the context of his battle with physical afflictions. Shouting Down the Silence accurately depicts Elkin as the hero of American letters he always refused to acknowledge himself as being.”--Peter J. Bailey, author of Reading Stanley Elkin"Recommended."--Choice
£29.70
University of Illinois Press Denise Levertov
Book SynopsisThe powerful interconnections of poet Denise Levertov's life and workTrade ReviewHonorable Mention in Biography, Georgia Author of the Year Awards, 2013. "Aptly titled A Poet's Life, this biography gives due attention to Levertov's work and the woman who wrote it."--Washington Times"This absorbing book is must reading for lovers of American literature, particularly by women, and contemporary poetry. Essential."--Choice"Brings alive the writer's lifetime vocation as a 'celebrant of Mystery'. . . . Greene, who has written lives of other spiritual thinkers like Evelyn Underhill and Maisie Ward, shows from Levertov's private diaries and journals the close connection between her personal struggles, her poetic maturaltion and her spiritual transformation."--America Magazine"Dana Greene's biography of Denise Levertov is fully informed and very readable. But what distinguishes this account is that Greene has assimilated the biographical facts and a reading of Levertov's poetry and prose into a full and rounded understanding of the course of Levertov's life and her poetic development as a pilgrimage and quest, religious in its origins. The result is an authoritative portrait of one of the central figures in American poetry of the last fifty years."--Albert Gelpi,coeditor of The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov"Gracefully written and eminently readable, this book provides a much-needed biography of Denise Levertov. Offering an impressive and compelling account of the crucial events of Levertov's life, Dana Greene illuminates invaluable connections between the poet's interior life and her work."--Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, author of Saint Sinatra and Other Poems"At the heart of Dana Greene's portrait of Denise Levertov is the poet's conviction that the essential human faculty is the imagination and that the artist's life is 'one of obedience to vocation.' Considering each stage of the poet's life, Greene writes with clarity and grace of Levertov's intertwined active outer life and her contemplative, imaginative, emotional inner life. A thoughtful, sensitive, sensible reading of Levertov's life and work."--Harry Marten, author of Understanding Denise Levertov"This impressive study is the first complete biography of [Denise Levertov]."--Library Journal"This compelling study deftly blends personal details with consideration of the poet's craft."--Kirkus Reviews "Greene's book is filled with 20th-century poets--and Catholic spiritual leaders who peopled the church before, during and after the Second Vatican Council. To be read and savored."--National Catholic Reporter "Greene has done us all a service with this much awaited and essential portrait of a major figure in American Literature. . . . Greene does a brilliant job of identifying this lifelong spiritual quest of Levertov as a central movement of her life, and connects these deep personal ties to family to the poems, thus revealing the life through the work and the work through the life. . . . Greene creates exactly the kind of biography that Levertov would have wanted--and we so needed."--New York Journal of Books "Greene succeeds in showing how Levertov's poetic development was a kind of spiritual quest. . . . a complete and balanced view of the life of this major literary figure."--Today's American Catholic "Greene's admiration for, and empathy with, Levertov is clear throughout this very readable book."--The Tablet "Greene establishes with thorough, compassionate authority the most important facts of the life of Denise Levertov: She was a woman of her time, and a poet for all time."--The Rumpus “[Green’s] prose is lucid and her narrative skillfully paced; her readings of the work are sound.”—London Review of Books "A bolder, more unified interpretation of Levertov's psychological-poetic development as the growth of a major figure in American poetry. The result is a more coherent, heroic, and triumphant narrative of the life of a "quintessential romantic," which makes compelling reading."--Resources for American Literary Study
£26.09
University of Illinois Press Illegal
Book SynopsisA day after 'N' first crossed the US border from Mexico, he was caught and then released onto the streets of Tijuana. Undeterred, he crawled back through a tunnel to San Diego, where he entered the United States forever. In this book, he details the constraints, deceptions, and humiliations that characterize alien life "amid the shadows."Trade Review"With near-poetic language, this undocumented immigrant from Mexico. . . . describes his years-long journey from harrowing border crossing to proud husband, father and home owner."--Library Journal"Because we speak of them in the collective--as 'illegal immigrants' or 'the undocumented'--it is shocking to be addressed by a singular voice. Nearly twenty years ago José Ángel N. entered the United States under cover of darkness from his native Mexico. Now he addresses us in elegant American English. He is the cosmopolite in a country where he remains 'the illegal.' He works as a translator; he reads German philosophy; he is married to an American wife; they have a young daughter. The view from the skyscraper window is of Lake Michigan; on his computer screen, the face of his mother appears in her green house in Guadalajara, Mexico. There are ironies aplenty in this book. Perhaps the greatest irony is that he has been studying us and he knows us better than we know him."--Richard Rodriguez, author of Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography"A memoir from a decent man living in the shadows, evading questions and telling lies, presented here anonymously since to reveal his identity would mean to risk arrest and deportation. . . . An utterly believable close-up picture of one illegal immigrant's life in the United States." -- Kirkus Reviews”José Ángel is like the Sisyphus of Greek mythological fame, stuck in an endless cycle of striving to push a boulder up a hill, anticipating the boulder will roll down again […] Against the odds, he overcomes major barrier after barrier.” --American Journal of Education"With great eloquence and pathos, N. draws on his daily life and references philosophers from Socrates to Kant to describe the netherworld of the undocumented. He takes solace in his education and his gift for reflection as he watches the slow and frustrating process of immigration reform. N. gives voice to the millions who, of necessity, live in the shadows."--Booklist"N. is able to put a truly human face on the 'shadow' that he is in our society and show us that he, along with the other eleven million undocumented people who live and toil in our nation, deserve to come out into the sun"--el Beisman"We do not have enough courageous writers who take the risk of telling their stories while undocumented. Illegal offers important testimony of the type of life an undocumented immigrant can lead when they have opportunities like N's. From the moment I began to read it I could not put it down."--Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz, author of Wild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Culture“Illegal is a memoir, certainly, but also a chronicle and an unforgiving history of American politics and culture. It is blunt, trenchant, and hard to read for its determination not to sanitize. It’s writing that is intoxicating, cathartic, and, perhaps, empowering.” --Antoinette Burton, coeditor of World Histories from Below: Dissent and Disruption, 1750-present "N.’s narrative silences the contentious immigration debate that proliferates amid political aspirants, policy pundits, and think-tank wonks in Washington. N.’s sublime and philosophic reflections transcend feckless fights about the contributions of the undocumented. As long as immigration occurs, this book remains required reading." --Paul Guajardo, University of Houston
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Julian Hawthorne
Book SynopsisJulian Hawthorne (1846-1934), Nathaniel Hawthorne's only son, lived a long and influential life marked by bad circumstances and worse choices. Raised among luminaries such as Thoreau, Emerson, and the Beecher family, Julian became a promising novelist in his twenties, but his writing soon devolved into mediocrity.Trade Review"In a superbly researched and engaging narrative, Gary Scharnhorst has pulled together all the facts of this fascinating if somewhat outrageous life. In sum, he has given us a keenly argued biography with a new angle on his famous father, who died when Julian was a teenager and who did not take much interest in his prodigal son."--American Literary Realism"Engaging and authoritative."--Washington Post"A 'must read.' Julian led a life stranger than fiction, and Scharnhorst, who writes with humor and an eye for detail, has offered a riveting account of the extraordinary events, pitfalls, and relationships that comprised his subject's life."--The New England Quarterly"This biography, in taking up Julian Hawthorne anew, aims to 'resurrect him from the footnote.' It has the potential to achieve this with its sharp profile of a once-prominent figure in American letters. That profile inevitably compels us to think about the peculiar, often precarious, social positions in which the children of cultural icons are put and/or put themselves. . . . Scharnhorst demonstrates how to write biography--not just to inform readers, but to pique their interest in its subject, or, title character."--Rocky Mountain Review"An intriguing portrait of a famous son who was an aristocrat, a hack, and a scrounge. Recommended."--Choice"Scharnhorst does more than just whet our appetite for the scandalous; he paints an elegant picture of a complex and contradictory man."--Resources for American Literary Study"Scharnhorst is one of the best-known and most respected bibliographers in the field of nineteenth-century American literature, and this biography is just what one would expect from a scholar of his skill and reputation. A valuable and highly readable contribution to the field, rich in surprising discoveries."--Thomas Mitchell, author of Hawthorne's Fuller Mystery
£26.09
University of Illinois Press Octavia E. Butler
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Canavan is an excellent critic and formidable researcher, and this book, written in accessible, quick-moving prose, is rich with perspectives and ideas. The best sections detail the stories Butler didn’t publish or complete, using those fragments to dive deeper into the texts that she finished. Like all good criticism, the book is both authoritative and invitational. Read it and you’ll marvel at the arguments and feel invited to develop your own." --New York Times"For those of us who cannot make the journey to the archive, Octavia E. Butler serves as a more-than-adequate substitute and entry into this treasure trove of Butler's writings."--Los Angeles Review of Books"A must-read for scholars of [science fiction], Canavan's scholarship is both a work of sharply dedicated research and a loving tribute to one of [science fiction’s] most creative geniuses. Highly recommended."--Library Journal"This book deserves a place of honor on the shelf of every fan or scholar of Butler's work and should be acquired by every institution with the resources to do so, from the smallest local library to the most heavily endowed research university."--SFRA Review"Both fans and scholars will appreciate this vivid in-depth study of an internationally acclaimed science fiction author's life and work."--Shelf Awareness"A deep reading of the work of the late science-fiction master."--Kirkus Reviews"Canavan delves into Butler's personal papers, housed at the Huntington Library, in order to illuminate the muses behind this groundbreaking author whose limited public persona was typically described by words such as shy and awkward. Canavan's careful and even reverent handling of Butler's journals and diaries, notes, drafts, and revisions reveals a lonely woman most at home in worlds of her own making, a woman whose drive and passion were not just to write, but to sell what she wrote." --Resources for American Literary Study "This excellent, comprehensive study sheds new light on the process and philosophy of one of the most important authors of our time."--Publishers Weekly "[An] intense critical biography."--Times Literary Supplement "A compelling and intimate portrait of one of the century's most important writers. Canavan's thorough archival research introduces us to new aspects of Butler’s life and thought and provides the first comprehensive overview of her career. He writes with grace and passion that is equal to the stature of his subject. Highly recommended."--Sherryl Vint, co-editor of Science Fiction Studies "There are great depths to Butler's work, and Canavan has given us a torch in order to better see those depths. There's a lot of valuable analysis of how Butler's fiction ties in with her personal life. Because of the personal nature of the book, what we have here is anything but a dry academic exercise."--Michael Levy, coeditor of Extrapolation "Sensible and well organized. A book that situates Butler's fiction at the junction of biocritical and genre studies, showing how Butler's experience of blackness in America led her to explore and exploit the 'messiness' of science fiction."--Lisa Yaszek, coeditor of Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Iain M. Banks
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, British Science Fiction Association, 2018 Finalist, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, 2018Locus Recommended Reading List, 2017 "Paul Kincaid has done an admirable job with this book, presenting us with the first really comprehensive survey of Banks' work across all his literary modes. Insightful, detailed, fair-minded, as generous as it is bracingly honest, it's a work that demands the attention of anyone with a real interest in this much-beloved author."--Alastair Reynolds, author of Poseidon's Wake"A thorough, focused, and very useful study of the works of Iain Banks . . . with the M and without the M!"--Gwyneth Jones, author of Life"Kincaid's Iain M. Banks is a significant and authoritative addition to these books that is likely to become a benchmark for Banks studies in the years ahead."--Strange Horizons"Kincaid remains a masterful practitioner of the lost art of finely calibrated literary criticism . . . Kincaid is, unsurprisingly, both meticulous and astute."--Science Fiction Studies"A warmly appreciative yet acutely critical survey, clear, concise, and well-judged."--Ken MacLeod, author of The Corporation Wars: Insurgence"Kincaid's short Ian M. Banks is admirable in the scope and depth of its explorations of Banks's many writerly projects." --Fafnir
£77.35
University of Illinois Press J. G. Ballard
Book SynopsisProphetic short stories and apocalyptic novels like The Crystal World made J. G. Ballard a foundational figure in the British New Wave. Rejecting the science fiction of rockets and aliens, he explored an inner space of humanity informed by psychiatry and biology and shaped by surrealism. Later in his career, Ballard's combustible plots and violent imagery spurred controversy--even legal action--while his autobiographical 1984 war novel Empire of the Sun brought him fame. D. Harlan Wilson offers the first career-spanning analysis of an author who helped steer SF in new, if startling, directions. Here was a writer committed to moral ambiguity, one who drowned the world and erected a London high-rise doomed to descend into savagery--and coolly picked apart the characters trapped within each story. Wilson also examines Ballard's methods, his influence on cyberpunk, and the ways his fiction operates within the sphere of our larger culture and within SF itself.Trade ReviewLocus Recommended Reading List, 2017 "Elegantly argued, intuitively organized, and sure to be relevant to Ballardian scholars. . . . A testament to Ballard's continued relevance."--Library Journal"Scholars and fans of Ballard will find this study comprehensive and stimulating."--Publisher's Weekly"J. G. Ballard is an engaging and comprehensive study that marshals a constellation of insights around a single, robust argument. No scholar writing on Ballard in future will want to be without it. The book would also serve as an ideal introduction to Ballard for undergraduates or others coming to his work for the first time."--The British Society for Literature and Science"Wilson interweaves the biographical elements with rich and insightful analysis of Ballard's oeuvre, from the novels to the short stories, plus commentary on his non-fiction work."--Amazing Stories"A comprehensive and intelligent overview of the author's work, it is critically engaged, well-informed in terms of existing scholarship, and written in a lively and accessible style. This is an excellent introduction to Ballard's work for scholars new to the author, as well as for fans and general readers." --Science Fiction Studies"Energetically written and deeply informed, Wilson's study is a highly recommended resource for readers needing either a convenient refresher of Ballard's entire oeuvre or a singular entry point into Ballard's fascinating life work." --SFRA Review"Wilson has put together an impressive book. There is something intuitive and effortless in his assessment of Ballard's work, and around every corner are oh-my-goodness-how-could-anyone-have-possibly-missed-that moments of discovery. For fans and critics alike, this is a must-read." --American Book Review"A new comprehensive standard. Wilson's insights reach to the furthest ends of J. G. Ballard's bookshelf, complicate easy assumptions about the location of the 'autobiographical' in his novels, and, best of all, assert that if there is a science fiction worth advancing into the twenty-first century, Ballard is at the center, not the periphery, of that project."--Jonathan Lethem "In this wide-ranging and accessible work, D. Harlan Wilson argues that J. G. Ballard is a writer who remained true to science fiction even as he claimed to abandon the genre. With clear-eyed intelligence and a deep understanding of his subject, Wilson builds a compelling case for Ballard as perhaps SF’s most radical innovator."--Simon Sellars, coeditor of Extreme Metaphors: Interviews with J. G. Ballard, 1967–2008 "Did J. G. Ballard protest too much? In this engaging work, Wilson makes a compelling case that, though Ballard often distanced himself from science fiction, his entire oeuvre belongs to the genre, even if Ballard fundamentally changed the genre along the way to include the terrain of inner space and the science-fictionalization of everyday life. A wonderful reading of one of late modernity’s greatest imaginative writers."--David Ian Paddy, author of The Empires of J. G. Ballard: An Imagined Geography "Both interested and academic readers will appreciate the delicate balance Wilson achieves between the breadth of his palate and the depth of each shade, all the while amused by Wilson’s snappy prose and ever-unfolding insights that reveal with appeal in this unique and compelling study of the Seer of Shepperton. What comes after highly recommended?"--Rick McGrath, editor of Deep Ends: The J. G. Ballard Anthology
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Lingua Cosmica
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Comprising contributions by recognized critics, Lingua Cosmica is an excellent addition to the current scholarship on non-Anglo-American sf." --Science Fiction Studies"Highly recommended." --Choice "Knickerbocker has done a service with this collection of essays not only to fans of science fiction eager to explore new frontiers, but perhaps more importantly to academic at large, which historically has been reluctant to embrace speculative fiction as a serious subject of scholarly study." --Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature"Lingua Cosmica represents an important step forward for the study of international science fiction . . . because of its indisputable success at its major goal of better familiarizing an English-speaking audience with these authors and filmmakers." --Fafnir - Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research"Lingua Cosmica is a vital and much-needed resource for people interested in world sf and what is or is not in English." --SFRA Review"Lingua Cosmica introduces Anglo scholars to a rich tradition of science fiction around the world. An exciting new perspective on a genre we thought we knew, Knickerbocker’s volume sets a new research agenda for global sf studies."--Sherryl Vint, coeditor of The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction"If you’re looking for excellent scholarship on 'global' science fiction, Lingua Cosmica should be your top choice. Its offers very perceptive essays on a broad variety of non-Anglo-American sf authors and cineastes written by some of the most respected experts in the field."--Arthur B. Evans, editor of Vintage Visions: Essays on Early Science Fiction
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Bradbury Beyond Apollo
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Eller's review of his muse's last for years of work brings to a satisfying conclusion a decade-long project to recount the life on one of American's most prolific and respected writers. . . .Eller illuminates the life and eventual death of this great American writer in a way that truly enriches any reader's understanding of him. This quiet yet present cultural icon may not always have had the impact he hoped for, but Bradbury clearly left a written legacy meriting a three-volume biography." --H-Net"Certain to be our generation's definitive life of Bradbury . . . This book makes an effective case for Bradbury's literary and social significance." --Science Fiction Studies "This final volume, published in the centennial years of its subject, is a fitting tribute to an admirable American original." --University Bookman "An enlightening examination of the last years of Bradbury's remarkable life . . . Essential." --Choice "The careful detail of this biography paints a rich portrait of Bradbury as a talented conversationalist and gifted collaborator and allows readers to understand the nuances of his professional relationships." --Science "Jonathan Eller’s final volume of his excellent biography of Ray Bradbury is an elegant and often poetic celebration of our great friend and a great man. Many wonderful memories return, and futures rise up. This book helps Ray follow the advice of Mr. Electrico: Live forever."--Greg Bear "The third book from Jonathan Eller dealing with the creative life of Ray Bradbury is just as amazing and brilliant and insightful as the previous volumes. My only disappointment is that it's over, and unlike the others, this one carries a sweet and sour coating of finality. As it neared the end of Ray Bradbury's life and creative works, I wept. And that usually takes a knife wound. An insightful roundup of Ray Bradbury's life, inspirations, triumphs, and disappointments makes this one of the best books about an author I've ever read, and I've read a few. It's a triumph." --Joe R. Lansdale "Jonathan Eller's conclusion to his biographical trilogy tracing the life and work of Ray Bradbury is every bit as terrific as the previous two volumes. Meticulous, informative, critically insightful, entertaining and utterly indispensable, it's just what one expects from our greatest authority on this great American writer."—Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the Washington Post "Eller's exhaustive exploration of Bradbury's creative output ties together how the strands of the author's restless imagination created a cohesive body of work with theme and panache. A must-have for Bradbury fans and sf scholars, and the perfect companion to the earlier volumes in the trilogy." --Library Journal "As with his earlier volumes, Eller makes meticulous use of his detailed research and extraordinary access to materials such as correspondence, manuscripts, and notebooks. The focus here is less on how Bradbury became a major writer, or how he parlayed his early success, than on his status as what Eller quite defensibly calls an American icon."--Gary K. Wolfe, author of Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature "Eller’s achievement in Bradbury Beyond Apollo and his two previous volumes will stand for years as the most penetrating view into the creative fire that was Bradbury’s mind and talent. It is a work of clear-eyed scholarship and, it must be said, love." --The Emotional Rationalist "A well-crafted biography of a man who inspired 'cosmic awareness in the everyday world.'" --Kirkus "Bradbury Beyond Apollo satisfyingly closed out a minutely researched and finely realized three-volume biography of Ray Bradbury. " --LocusTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Inherited Wish 1. Prometheus Bound 2. The Darkness Between the Stars 3. A Teller of Tales 4. The Prisoner of Gravity 5. Witness and Celebrate 6. The Sleep of Reason 7. The Inherited Wish 8. Long After Midnight 9. A Mailbox on Mars Part II. Beyond Eden 10. The God in Science Fiction 11. Infinite Worlds 12. Abandon in Place 13. Beyond Eden 14. Robot Museums 15. The Great Shout of the Universe 16. A Eureka Year 17. One-Way Ticket Man Part III. 1984 Will Not Arrive 18. “My Name Is Dark” 19. A Most Favorite Subject 20. Memories of Murder 21. 1984 Will Not Arrive 22. Death Is a Lonely Business 23. A Poet’s Heart 24. Forms of Things Unknown 25. Time Flies 26. Beyond the Iron Curtain Part IV. Graveyard for Lunatics 27. A Graveyard for Lunatics 28. Disputed Passage 29. Green Shadows, White Whale 30. The ABCs of Science Fiction 31. An American Icon 32. Harvest Time 33. A Promise of Eternity 34. Séances and Ghosts 35. An Evening on Mars Part V. Closing the Book 36. “Make Haste to Live” 37. Messages in a Bottle 38. The Fire Within 39. A Child’s Imagination 40. Farewell Summer 41. Samurai Kabuki 42. “Nothing Has to Die” 43. Visions of Mars 44. Remembrance 45. Closing the Book Notes Index
£25.19
University of Illinois Press Roger Zelazny
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Cox consistently brings great critical acumen to bear on his readings, which are sensitively attuned to Zelazny’s specifics but never lose sight of the broader literary context, and he organizes an imposing array of material in insightful and intuitive ways. He captures the excitement of Zelazny’s work, the thrill of its evolution, the astonishing panache of its heights." --Locus"Well-researched, well-organized, and well-written, this is an exemplary entry in the University of Illinois Press's Modern Masters of Science Fiction series, and it deserves the attention of all fans and scholars of Zealzny's work, and of modern sf generally." --Science Fiction Studies"Zelazny fans will enjoy comparing their opinions of various Zelazny titles with Cox’s opinions, and getting tips from Cox on worthy titles they may have overlooked." --Sandusky Register"Roger Zelazny is a thorough and sympathetic review of the life, career, and work of one of the seminal creators in science fiction and fantasy of the last half of the 20th century. It takes into account the prior work of reviewers, critics, and biographers as well as commentary by his peers and fans, from every period of his sadly shortened life and since." --SFRA Review
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Jane Kenyon
Book SynopsisDemystifying the “Poet Laureate of Depression” Pleasure-loving, sarcastic, stubborn, determined, erotic, deeply sad--Jane Kenyon’s complexity and contradictions found expression in luminous poems that continue to attract a passionate following. Dana Greene draws on a wealth of personal correspondence and other newly available materials to delve into the origins, achievement, and legacy of Kenyon’s poetry and separate the artist’s life story from that of her husband, the award-winning poet Donald Hall. Impacted by relatives’ depression during her isolated childhood, Kenyon found poetry at college, where writers like Robert Bly encouraged her development. Her graduate school marriage to the middle-aged Hall and subsequent move to New Hampshire had an enormous impact on her life, moods, and creativity. Immersed in poetry, Kenyon wrote about women’s lives, nature, death, mystical experiences, and melancholy--becoming, in her own wordsTrade Review“Dana Greene’s compulsively readable biography of Jane Kenyon tells the poignant story of the poet’s life, her development and career as a writer, and her long marriage to and partnership with poet Donald Hall. Overshadowed for many years, in life and after her death, by her more famous husband, Kenyon emerges in Greene’s narrative as a fiercely independent and gifted artist in her own right. Greene takes pains to illuminate the complex dynamics of their relationship and to showcase the quiet power and beauty of Jane Kenyon’s work, liberating Kenyon from the prevailing mythos that casts her as a lesser poet and enabling readers to see her anew. Jane Kenyon is a triumph.”--Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, author of Flannery O’Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith"A subtle, sensitive portrait of a 'complex, talented, and ambitious' woman. " --KirkusTable of ContentsA Word of Gratitude Prologue Turning Inward Enlivened by Poetry Donald Hall, “Rockstar” Marriage by Default House of the Ancestors The Community of Wilmot The Muses Finding Her Way A Double Solitude Streaming Light and Death The Boat of Quiet Hours Waiting A Moment in Middle Age The Coming Evening Widening Vision The Poet Laureate of Depression Poetry Matters The Busiest Year Deciding to Live Annus Horribilis “Please Don’t Die” Falling into Light Aftermath Acclaim Advocate for the Inner Life Note on Sources Notes Bibliography Index
£22.79
University of Illinois Press Frank Norris
Book SynopsisBorn in Chicago in 1870, Frank Norris moved to San Francisco at fifteen, spent two years in Paris painting, returned to San Francisco to become an internationally famous author, and died at age thirty-two from a ruptured appendix. During his short life, he wrote an inspired series of novels. This title offers a full-scale portrait of Norris.Trade Review"An important book. Norris is a compelling figure in American letters--youthful, ambitious, prolific, Californian--and he merits just this kind of learned assessment."--Los Angeles Times"Not only is the narrative readable and captivating, but McElrath and Crisler correct a number of common misconceptions about Norris and his work, persuasively demonstrating that he was much more than simply the 'American Zola' that many of his contemporaries made him out to be. This book demonstrates that Norris and his writings deserve much more careful attention from students and scholars. Essential."--Choice"The authors . . . began their research as graduate students in 1971 and have devoted most of their scholarly careers to finding out who Frank Norris really was. Norris died unexpectedly of a ruptured appendix in 1902 at the age of 32, and the authors conclude that much of our existing information about his brief life is plain wrong. . . . In setting the record straight, the meticulous McElrath and Crisler have written the definitive biography of Norris. In it, they emphasize how appreciation of Norris's literary genius is inseparable from an untimely death that forever raised the unfulfilled promise of even greater work to come."--New York Times Book Review"The meticulous McElrath and Crisler have written the definitive biography of Norris. In it, they emphasize how appreciation of Norris's literary genius is inseparable from an untimely death that forever raised the unfulfilled promise of even greater work to come."--New York Times Book Review
£19.94
University of Illinois Press Becoming Ray Bradbury
Book SynopsisChronicles the making of an iconic American writer by exploring Ray Bradbury's childhood and early years of his long life in fiction, film, television, radio, and theatre.Trade Review"Particularly strong in detailing Bradbury’s friendships, influences, and professional relationships and endeavors." --Orbit"Every page is packed with fascinating material about one of this country’s most beloved writers."--The Washington Post, Michael Dirda "A very Bradburyian biography."--SFRA Review "Eller's work is thorough and enlightening on the subject of one of science fiction's greatest minds. Highly recommended not just for Bradbury fans but for all students of science fiction."--Library Journal"A treasury of otherwise unavailable information. . . . Fans of Bradbury will find this book a fascinating and revealing look into his life and work."--Science Fiction Studies"Jonathan R. Eller traces a wide variety of influences on Ray Bradbury's work, offering a detailed literary and cultural genealogy. Utterly compelling, this book contains a substantial amount of new material that will be invaluable for future scholars of Bradbury's work." --Gary K. Wolfe, author of Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature"A richly contextualized interpretation of Ray Bradbury's personal experience, his intellectual and artistic life, and the cultural milieu in which his gifts developed. Becoming Ray Bradbury will be the definitive account of Bradbury's development as a writer." --David Mogen, author of Wilderness Visions: The Western Theme in Science Fiction Literature"In great and always fascinating detail, Eller chronicles the journey Bradbury took from his youth to his early middle years. . . . [A] fine and important book."--Neworld Review "Eller shows how Bradbury found his vocation in a private world of mimeographed fanzines and couch-surfing, of transcontinental trips to the very first SF conventions, of the intense rivalries and controversies of a small enclosed world. . . . Eller’s excellent account makes clear that one of the reasons why Bradbury came to seem an important new voice is that he was never as naive a writer as literary patrons such as Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley may have assumed.”Times Literary Supplement "A stunningly good examination of what in Ray's life turned him into the unique, individual writer he became."--Huffington Post "Eller must surely be the preeminent biographer of Ray Bradbury."--Choice "As perhaps the most knowledgeable scholar of Bradbury's body of work, Eller offers an in-depth study of his subject's early life, laying out his development from pulp publications toward The Martian Chronicles (1950) and Fahrenheit 451 (1953). . . . A fitting tribute to the impact that Ray Bradbury has had for his readers. Becoming Ray Bradbury reminds fans and scholars alike of the need to revisit our well-worn copies of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and the countless short stores that introduced so many of us to the realm of the fantastic."--Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts "Articulate and engaging, astonishingly rich in detail, and demonstrating exemplary research and scholarship, Becoming Ray Bradbury will be regarded as the most authoritative biography of Bradbury's life and work for many years."--Peter Stockwell, author of Texture: A Cognitive Aesthetics of Reading
£17.99
University of Illinois Press Oscar Wilde in America
Book SynopsisOscar Wilde's grand U.S. tour, captured in dozens of newspaper interviewsTrade Review"A generous and welcome sampling."--New York Review of Books "Highly recommended."--Choice"[A] rewarding, absorbing, and necessary book."--The Gay and Lesbian Review "Wilde was a source of fascination and provocation, and these assembled portraits reveal the rawness and the refinements, the pride and the anxieties, of American culture in the making during this important period. A vital and valuable book."--Eric Haralson, editor of Reading the Middle Generation Anew: Culture, Community, and Form in Twentieth-Century American Poetry"This stimulating work is an invaluable record of Wilde's speech, appearance, and demeanor. An excitingly fresh study of interest both to Wilde specialists and to general readers."--Donald Mead, chairman of the Oscar Wilde Society and editor of The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde Studies
£19.94
University of Illinois Press Iain M. Banks
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, British Science Fiction Association, 2018 Finalist, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List, 2017— British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, British Science Fiction Association, 2018 Finalist, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List, 2017— Hugo Award BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, British Science Fiction Association, 2018 Finalist, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List, 2017— LocusTable of ContentsCoverTitleContentsAcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Crossing the BridgeChapter 2. Backing into the CultureChapter 3. Outside Context ProblemsChapter 4. Approaching the WorldGodChapter 5. AftermathA Few Questions on the Culture by Jude RobertsAn Iain M. Banks BibliographyNotesBibliography of Secondary SourcesIndex
£16.14
University of Illinois Press Brian W. Aldiss
Book SynopsisBrian W. Aldiss wrote classic science fiction novels like Report on Probability A and Hothouse. Billion Year Spree, his groundbreaking study of the field, defined the very meaning of SF and delineated its history. Yet Aldiss's discomfort with being a guiding spirit of the British New Wave and his pursuit of mainstream success characterized a lifelong ambivalence toward the genre. Paul Kincaid explores the many contradictions that underlay the distinctive qualities of Aldiss's writing. Wartime experiences in Asia and the alienation that arose upon his return to the cold austerity of postwar Britain inspired themes and imagery that Aldiss drew upon throughout his career. He wrote of prolific nature overwhelming humanity, believed war was madness even though it provided him with the happiest period of his life, and found parallels in the static lives of Indian peasants and hidebound English society. As Kincaid shows, contradictions created tensions that fueled the Trade Review"As Kincaid’s elegant overview makes clear, Aldiss’s work is not only a paean to ceaseless creativity, but a testament to an almost compulsive preoccupation with generating new problems towards whose solution that same sparkling creativity may be directed." --Locus"A level-headed assessment. " --Times Literary Supplement "Brian Aldiss was science fiction’s most gifted stylist: innovative, elegant, mercurial and always highly readable. He was tirelessly prolific, producing not only stories of adventure in space, travelers through time and several noxious alien beings, but also experimental literary fiction and thoughtful memoir. Paul Kincaid’s superb and closely attentive account of his life and work covers the full Aldiss range, responding sympathetically not only to the extraordinary variety but also the level of ambition." --Christopher Priest, four-time winner of the BSFA Award"Paul Kincaid's cogent, career-spanning study of Brian Aldiss's life and work is a valuable contribution to SF studies. He expertly covers the many books in Aldiss's canon, shedding new light on areas that have received little scholarly attention while enumerating the author’s importance to the SF megatext. Accessible and illuminating, Brian W. Aldiss should be read by anybody writing about Aldiss, but it's also an enjoyable biography."--D. Harlan Wilson, author of J. G. Ballard"Kincaid affirms Aldiss as a crucial figure in postwar British sf, author of a handful of indisputable classics, and deeply involved in the aesthetic and critical evolution of the field." --Science Fiction Studies
£17.99
Indiana University Press Saul Bellow
Book Synopsis
£70.55
Indiana University Press Saul Bellow
Book Synopsis
£34.20
