Cyril Connolly: The Life and Times of England's Most Controversial Literary Critic

Cyril Connolly: The Life and Times of England's Most Controversial Literary Critic

Hardcover. xiii, [1], 466 p. Illustrations. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index. From Wikipedia: "Cyril Vernon Connolly (10 September 1903 26 November 1974) was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon (1940 1949) and wrote Enemies of Promise (1938), which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of fiction that he had aspired to be in his youth.Connolly's only novel, The Rock Pool (1936), is a satirical work describing a covey of dissolute drifters at an end of season French seaside resort, which was based on his experiences in the south of France. It was initially accepted by a London publishing house but they changed their minds. Faber and Faber was one of the publishers who rejected it, and so Connolly took it to Jack Kahane, who published it in Paris in 1936. Connolly followed this up with a book of non-fiction, Enemies of Promise (1938), the second half of which is autobiographical. In it he attempted to explain his failure to produce the literary masterpiece that he and others believed he should have been capable of writing.Connolly did his best work as a critic. Like Edmund Wilson in the United States, he wielded enormous influence. An astute and often witty commentator, with great gifts for often cruel mimicry, Connolly informed the thinking and attitudes of a generation. In The Unquiet Grave he writes: "Approaching forty, sense of total failure: .Never will I make that extra effort to live according to reality which alone makes good writing possible: hence the manic-depressiveness of my style, which is either bright, cruel and superficial; or pessimistic; moth-eaten with self-pity." As editor of Horizon, Connolly gave a platform to a wide range of distinguished and emerging writers. He was robust in his criticism of the decline of the Mandarin and perhaps too effusive in his welcome of the New Vernacular. Kenneth Tynan, writing in the March 1954 Harper's Bazaar, praised Connolly's style as 'one of the most glittering of English literary possessions. '" From an on-line posting: "e Fisher is the author of several critically acclaimed biographies, including NOEL COWARD and CYRIL CONNOLLY. He was educated at Oxford University, and his writings have appeared in numerous publications including The Times, The Financial Times, and Punch. Between 2005 and 2006, he was a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at New York Public Library. His most recent book is HART CRANE: A Life (Yale, 2002), a definitive biography of the American poet. Clive is currently writing the authorized biography of the novelist, photographer, critic and cultural impresario Carl Van Vechten." Very good in very good dust jacket. DJ has slight wear and soiling. First U.S. edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Artikel-Nr. 67135

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