Synopses & Reviews
A submarine's deadliest antagonist is another sub. Some of our most illustrious writers have tried their best to sink their enemies, using all the weapons at their command-wit, humor, sarcasm, invective, and the occasional right cross to the jaw. In these eight profiles of quarrels between famous authors, Anthony Arthur draws on a lifetime of reading and teaching their works to describe the feuds as lively duels of strong personalities. Going beyond mere gossip, he provides insights into the issues that provoked the quarrels-Soviet communism, World War II, and the natural tension between the critical and the creative temperaments among them. The result reads like a collection of short stories, with the featured authors as their own best characters and having the best lines. For example:
--Ernest Hemingway on his one-time friend and tutor: "Gertrude Stein was never crazy/Gertrude Stein was very lazy."
--Sinclair Lewis to Theodore Dreiser "I still say you are a liar and a thief."
--Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman " . . . every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the. ' "
These great writers are a quarrelsome bunch indeed, and these true tales of bookish bickering are guaranteed to enlighten and entertain even the most discriminating literature lovers.
Review
"Fulbright scholar Arthur (The Tailor-King; Deliverance at Los Banos) wrote this entertaining compilation of essays to help readers "appreciate and understand [the authors'] work." However, these 20- to 30-page accounts of sparring and enmity between famous, predominantly American authors (e.g., Mark Twain vs. Bret Harte; Ernest Hemingway vs. Gertrude Stein; Tom Wolfe vs. John Updike), although very well written, sometimes seem more like gossip than literary analysis." Library Journal
Review
"Arthur has uncovered a treasure trove of stories that offers revealing glimpses into that most entertaining of spectator sports: nasty quarreling among the literati. He pulls together some familiar feuds (Ernest Hemingway versus Gertrude Stein) as well as some more recent, perhaps less well known, dust-ups (Tom Wolfe versus John Updike; Vladimir Nabokov versus Edmund Wilson), and the result is a compelling page-turner." Booklist
Review
"Readable, engaging look at memorable fights among (mostly) 20th-century literary personalities....Although this is studded with fine-tuned bons mots (as when Vidal opines that to attack Capote is "attacking an elf"), the reader mayfinally agree with Wilson's observation that literary feuds find notable authors at their most "querulous and unattractive." Too, Arthur might have produced a more provocative work had he included more obscure writers and contemporary mud-slingers like Curtis White, Dale Peck, and Francine Prose. Still, for literary enthusiasts, an amusing compendium of the vitriol and ego for which our most enduring writers somehow set aside the time." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Praise for Anthony Arthur's Previous BooksDeliverance at Los Banos
"A superb job of telling a splendid story."--Stephen Ambrose
"Engaging style."--Booklist
"Taut account of heroism...the stuff of high adventure."--Los Angeles Herald Examiner
Bushmasters
"Prose taht has the rare and...invaluable qualities of both clarity and restraint...a superb piece of writing."--Los Angeles Times
"Distinguished...The final chapter stands by itself as a short classic."--Publishers Weekly
"One of the liveliest unit histories of WWII I've ever read."--Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
The Tailor-King
"Arthur deftly uses primary sources to craft a story that reads like a good thriller."--Library Journal
"A riveting story."--Booklist
"Vividly written...entertaining history with implicit contemporary relevance."--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Praise for Anthony Arthur's Previous Books
Deliverance at Los Banos
"A superb job of telling a splendid story."--Stephen Ambrose
"Engaging style."--Booklist
"Taut account of heroism...the stuff of high adventure."--Los Angeles Herald Examiner
Bushmasters
"Prose taht has the rare and...invaluable qualities of both clarity and restraint...a superb piece of writing."--Los Angeles Times
"Distinguished...The final chapter stands by itself as a short classic."--Publishers Weekly
"One of the liveliest unit histories of WWII I've ever read."--Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
The Tailor-King
"Arthur deftly uses primary sources to craft a story that reads like a good thriller."--Library Journal
"A riveting story."--Booklist
"Vividly written...entertaining history with implicit contemporary relevance."--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Fascinating feuds between famous writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Ernest Hemingway vs. Gertrude Stein, Edmund Wilson and Vladimir Nabokov, and Tom Wolfe and John Updike. Good clash-of-celebrity-egos gossip for the literary crowd.
About the Author
Anthony Arthur is a Fulbright Scholar and the author of
Deliverance at Los Banos and
Bushmaster, both narrative histories of World War II. He is also the author of
The Tailor-King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster. Anthony Arthur lives in Woodland Hills, California, where for many years he has taught writing and literature at California State University, Northridge.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Partners No More: Mark Twain and Bret Harte
The Boy with the Interested Eyes: Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein
The Slap Heard 'Round the World: Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, and the Nobel Prize
Not Always a "Pleasant Tussle": The Difficult Friendship of Edmund Wilson and Vladimir Nabokov
The Battle of the "Two Cultures": C. P. Snow and F. R. Leavis
"Now There's a Play": Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy
Les Enfants Terribles: Truman Capote and Gore Vidal
Not-So-Dry Bones: Tom Wolfe, John Updike, and the Perils of Literary Ambition
Notes
Index