Zachary Leader Libri

The second volume in the life of literary giant Saul Bellow, vividly capturing a personal life that was always tumultuous and career that never ceased being triumphant. Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters--rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1, rise; volume 2, fall. Bellow never fell, producing in the latter half of his life some of his greatest fiction (Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize. At eighty, he wrote his last story; at eighty-five, he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in the first. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel. In this stunning second volume, Zachary Leader shows that Bellow's heroic energy and will were present to the very end of his life. His immense achievement and its cost, to himself and others, continue to be worth the examination of this vivid work of literary scholarship.

The biography delves into Saul Bellow's multifaceted identity as a novelist, exploring his evolution and prominence in American literature. Zachary Leader utilizes exclusive access to Bellow's papers and insights from over 150 personal interviews to paint a comprehensive portrait of the author. The work examines how Bellow's diverse experiences as a writer, polemicist, husband, father, and his cultural background shaped his literary contributions. Through meticulous analysis of his writings and personal history, the book offers a rich understanding of Bellow's life and legacy.

In this authorised biography, Zachary Leader argues that Kingsley Amis was not only the finest comic novelist of his generation, but a dominant figure in post-war British writing, as novelist, poet, critic and polemicist.

Professor Leader marks the centenary of Bellow's birth with an account of the novelist's life. The biography will be published in two volumes.

Offering detailed analyses of each poem and its illustrations, this comprehensive study emphasizes the cohesive nature of the Songs of Innocence and Experience as a unified work of art. By redirecting focus to the interplay between the text and visuals, the book highlights the artistic achievements of Blake's collection, making it a significant contribution to the understanding of his poetry and design.

Exploring the revisionary practices of key Romantic writers, this book challenges the traditional view of authorship as spontaneous and solitary. It highlights how figures like Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, Coleridge, Clare, and Mary Shelley engaged in significant revisions, emphasizing the importance of second thoughts and collaboration in their creative processes. By examining these practices, the author argues for a more nuanced understanding of Romantic literature that recognizes the value of revision in shaping their influential works.

The Movement was the preeminent poetical grouping of post-war Britain. This collection of original essays by distinguished poets, critics, and scholars from Britain and America provides new accounts not only of the best-known of Movement writers - Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis, Thom Gunn, and Donald Davie - but of less-familiar contemporaries.