Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties
by Joyce Maynard
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A special anniversary edition of Joyce Maynard's groundbreaking memoir about coming of age in one of America's most defining decades. Joyce Maynard was eighteen years old when her 1972 New York Times Magazine cover story catapulted her to national prominence. Published one year later, Looking Back is her remarkable follow-up: part memoir, part cultural history, and part social critique. She wrote about diving under her desk for air-raid practice during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Beatles' show more first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and catching the first glimpse (on the cover of Life magazine) of a human fetus in utero. Extraordinarily frank, sincere, and opinionated, Maynard seemed unafraid to take on any subject, including herself. But as she reveals in a poignant and candid new foreword, she carefully kept her inner life off the page. She didn't write about her difficult relationship with her mother, or her father's alcoholism, or the fact that her best friend at college had struggled with the knowledge that he was gay. And she did not mention the most important part of her life at the time she was writing this book: her relationship with reclusive author J. D. Salinger, who read and corrected every page, even as he condemned her for writing it. In this special anniversary edition, Maynard's candid introductory reflections on the girl behind the girl who wrote Looking Back lend a new dimension to this iconic analysis of a generation. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Joyce Maynard including rare photos from the author's personal collection. show lessTags
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I came across a reference to this in another book about the 1960's and decided to take the plunge. I don't know how someone that did not grow up in the 1950's and 1960's would react to this, but she is the same age as I am, so even though her growing up was radically different than mine, we somehow came to the same conclusion about the times and the place and the perception of loss our generation experienced. Given that she wrote this aged 19 to 20, it is all the more remarkable. You decide. Well written, but not sure how much relevance it will have for you.
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32+ Works 5,127 Members
Joyce Maynard was born on November 5, 1953. She first came to national attention in 1973 with the publication of her New York Times cover story An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life, which she wrote while a freshman at Yale University. Since then, she has been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, a syndicated newspaper columnist, and show more a regular contributor to NPR. Her writing have also been published in numerous magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine; Newsweek; The New York Times Magazine; Forbes; Salon; San Francisco Magazine; and USA Weekly. She has written both fiction and nonfiction works including The Usual Rules, The Cloud Chamber, Internal Combustion, After Her, and her memoirs Looking Back and At Home in the World. Maynard's memoirs include details about her relationship with J. D. Salinger when she was 18 years old and attending Yale University. To Die For was adapted into a movie starring Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon and Joaquin Phoenix and Labor Day was adapted into a movie starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1973
- People/Characters
- Joyce Maynard
- Dedication
- To My Parents
- First words
- To my friend Hanna, at five, I am a grown-up. I do not feel like one—at nineteen, I'm at the midway point between the kindergartner and her mother, and I belong to neither generation—but I can vote and drink in New York, ... (show all)and marry without parental consent in Mississippi, and get a life sentence, not reform school, if i shoot someone premeditatedly.
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- Members
- 90
- Popularity
- 355,225
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.69)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 5
