The Life of Kingsley Amis
by Zachary Leader
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Description
"Here is the authorized, definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of twentieth century literature, renowned for his blistering intelligence, savage wit and belligerent fierceness of opinion: Kingsley Amis was not only the finest comic novelist of his generation - having first achieved prominence with the publication of Lucky Jim in 1954 and as one of the Angry Young Men - but also a dominant figure in post-World War II British writing as novelist, poet, critic and show more polemicist." "In The Life of Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader draws not only on unpublished works and correspondence but also on interviews with a wide range of Amis's friends, relatives, fellow writers, students and colleagues, many of whom have never spoken out before. The result is an account of Amis's childhood, school days and life as a student at Oxford, teacher, critic, political and cultural commentator, professional author, husband, father and lover. Even as he makes the case for Amis's cultural centrality - at his death Time magazine claimed that "the British decades between 1955 and 1995" should in fairness be called 'the Amis era'" - Leader explores the writer's phobias, self-doubts and ambitions; the controversies in which he was embroiled; and the role that drink played in a life bedeviled by erotic entanglements, domestic turbulence and personal disaster."--BOOK JACKET. show lessTags
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Author Information
13+ Works 380 Members
Zachary Leader is a professor of English literature at Roehampton University in England.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Kingsley Amis
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 828.91409 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English miscellaneous writings English miscellaneous writings 1900- English miscellaneous writings 1900-1999 English miscellaneous writings 1945-1999 Individual authors
- LCC
- PR6001 .M6 .Z77 — Language and Literature English English Literature 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 113
- Popularity
- 279,868
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
