The Letters of William Gaddis by William Gaddis

The Letters of William Gaddis by William Gaddis

A revelatory collection of correspondence by the lauded author of titanic American classics such as The Recognitions and J R, shedding light on his staunchly private life.

UPDATED WITH OVER TWO DOZEN NEW LETTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Now recognized as one of the giants of postwar American fiction, William Gaddis shunned the spotlight during his life, which makes this collection of his letters a revelation. Beginning in 1930 when Gaddis was at boarding school and ending in September 1998, a few months before his death, these letters function as a kind of autobiography, and also reveal the extent to which he drew upon events in his life for his fiction. Here we see him forging his first novel, The Recognitions (1955), while living in Mexico, fighting in a revolution in Costa Rica, and working in Spain, France, and North Africa. Over the next twenty years he struggles to find time to write the National Book Award-winning J R (1975) amid the complications of work and family; deals with divorce and disillusionment before reviving his career with Carpenter's Gothic (1985); then teaches himself enough about the law to produce A Frolic of His Own (1994). Resuming his lifelong obsession with mechanization and the arts, he finishes a last novel, Agapē Agape (published in 2002), as he lies dying.

This newly revised edition includes clarifying notes by Gaddis scholar Steven Moore, as well as an afterword by the author's daughter, Sarah Gaddis.

William Gaddis (1922-1998) is widely regarded as one of America's greatest writers of the twentieth century. He wrote five books throughout his career, winning two National Book Awards, a MacArthur Genius Prize, a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, and funds from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is adored and respected for his artistic breakthroughs, unforgettable characters, all-pervasive humor, and intellectual and visionary breadth.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781681375830
ISBN 10	1681375834
Title	The Letters of William Gaddis
Author	William Gaddis
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The New York Review of Books, Inc
Year published	2023-04-04
Number of pages	688
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.