Ellmann's Joyce by Zachary Leader
Richard Ellmanns James Joyce, published in 1959, has been called the greatest literary biography of the twentieth century. Ellmanns Joyce provides the biography of the biographyan eye-opening account of how Ellmanns book came to be, the intrigue surrounding it, and its enduring impact on the study and making of literary lives.
The British critic and scholar Christopher Ricks said of Ellmann’s biography that it ‘engages every aspect of Joyce’s life and interests,’ from the amatory to the political to the domestic…‘Ellmann’s Joyce’ does the same for its likable subject-- James Campbell * Wall Street Journal *
A wise, balanced and utterly compelling biography. -- Frances Wilson * The Spectator *
[Leader] writes not only with great respect for the labour involved, but with a sense of its understated drama… makes a compelling case for the validity and critical value of the often maligned genre of literary biography. -- James Ley * Australian Book Review *
Leader is himself a distinguished biographer…[in this book] he offers an extended homage to a master in his field. -- Rhodri Lewis * Literary Review *
A riveting glimpse inside the biography writing process, this scintillates. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
[A] fascinating book…Leader brilliantly conveys the life-writer’s exciting pursuit of Joyce’s family and friends, and his frequent discovery of vital information. -- Jeffrey Meyers * The Article *
An engaging and interesting double biography, of man and work. -- M. A. Orthofer * Complete Review *
An ingeniously conceived and beautifully executed book by a preeminent literary biographer. It is compulsively readable as well as profoundly sympathetic, drawing a memorable portrait of a fascinating man and his intellectual milieu, and making an important statement about literary biography, its form, uses, and implications. A remarkable achievement. -- R. F. Foster, author of W. B. Yeats: A Life
A biography of a biographer by a biographer is, for a biographer like myself, a welcome, exciting, and above all rare event. Though the story is hardly ever told, Zachary Leader knows that what goes into the making of a great biography is often as much of a story as the story itself. With Ellmann’s Joyce, Leader shows how biographers think and work, and how their thinking and working shapes the posthumous destinies of those they write about. -- Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Sontag: Her Life and Work
Zachary Leader's biography of Richard Ellmann uncovers the struggles and secrets of Ellmann's life with great empathy and inimitable panache. Objective and affectionate, gossipy and grand, this book is a great read. -- Elaine Showalter, author of The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe: A Biography
Zachary Leader has given us the gift of explanation without simplification. This is a masterpiece of insight and dignified audacity, sure to immortalize its subject—the art of literary biography and one of its greatest practitioners, Richard Ellmann. -- Declan Kiberd, author of Ulysses and Us
A wise, balanced and utterly compelling biography. -- Frances Wilson * The Spectator *
[Leader] writes not only with great respect for the labour involved, but with a sense of its understated drama… makes a compelling case for the validity and critical value of the often maligned genre of literary biography. -- James Ley * Australian Book Review *
Leader is himself a distinguished biographer…[in this book] he offers an extended homage to a master in his field. -- Rhodri Lewis * Literary Review *
A riveting glimpse inside the biography writing process, this scintillates. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
[A] fascinating book…Leader brilliantly conveys the life-writer’s exciting pursuit of Joyce’s family and friends, and his frequent discovery of vital information. -- Jeffrey Meyers * The Article *
An engaging and interesting double biography, of man and work. -- M. A. Orthofer * Complete Review *
An ingeniously conceived and beautifully executed book by a preeminent literary biographer. It is compulsively readable as well as profoundly sympathetic, drawing a memorable portrait of a fascinating man and his intellectual milieu, and making an important statement about literary biography, its form, uses, and implications. A remarkable achievement. -- R. F. Foster, author of W. B. Yeats: A Life
A biography of a biographer by a biographer is, for a biographer like myself, a welcome, exciting, and above all rare event. Though the story is hardly ever told, Zachary Leader knows that what goes into the making of a great biography is often as much of a story as the story itself. With Ellmann’s Joyce, Leader shows how biographers think and work, and how their thinking and working shapes the posthumous destinies of those they write about. -- Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Sontag: Her Life and Work
Zachary Leader's biography of Richard Ellmann uncovers the struggles and secrets of Ellmann's life with great empathy and inimitable panache. Objective and affectionate, gossipy and grand, this book is a great read. -- Elaine Showalter, author of The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe: A Biography
Zachary Leader has given us the gift of explanation without simplification. This is a masterpiece of insight and dignified audacity, sure to immortalize its subject—the art of literary biography and one of its greatest practitioners, Richard Ellmann. -- Declan Kiberd, author of Ulysses and Us
Zachary Leader is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton in London and author of The Life of Kingsley Amis and the two-volume Life of Saul Bellow, alongside multiple works of criticism and scholarship. He is General Editor of The Oxford History of Life-Writing and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780674248397 |
| ISBN 10 | 0674248392 |
| Title | Ellmann's Joyce |
| Author | Zachary Leader |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press |
| Year published | 2025-05-06 |
| Number of pages | 464 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |