Daughterty…approaches Cormac McCarthy with the patience of a historian and the instincts of a novelist. Rather than reducing McCarthy to the familiar mythology of the reclusive genius wandering the American Southwest, Daugherty reveals the complicated, contradictory man behind the legend … Daugherty illuminates this enigmatic figure, navigating the tension between the ‘hermit of Santa Fe’ and the reality of a man drawn to the theoretical research at the Sante Fe Institute, all while exploring the cost of genius and the enduring, stark brilliance of a singular American voice. Read more
Tag: Literary Biography
New Biography of Larry McMurtry Published
McMurtry, the most famous, beloved and multimedia-successful writer to come out of North Central Texas, or indeed out of all Texas, was a storyteller first and foremost. His life revolved around books: reading, writing, collecting and selling them. And when it came to talking or writing about himself and his background, as he was often called upon to do, his stories sometimes evolved into Texas tall tales. Read more
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‘The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief’
Holmes, master biographer that he is, vividly conjures up this awkward, compelling figure. What gives his book its exceptional energy, though, is not what is happening on the surface of Tennyson’s life and Holmes’s narrative. It is the powerful undertow of threatened belief and existential anxiety tugging the reader down … This biography is a compelling story of an odd, brilliant, charismatic character, and a reappraisal of a man who had become so very established we could no longer see him. Read more
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Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell
At last, in “Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell,” journalist, biographer and Kansas City resident Steve Paul has constructed a meticulous, intriguing, and long-overdue appraisal of a talent deserving of wider attention. Read more
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