Synopses & Reviews
Croswell Bowen: A Writerand#8217;s Life, a Daughterand#8217;s Portrait is the life story of a journalist who wrote his way through the major events of the mid-twentieth century.
and#160;While tracing the trajectory of Croswell Bowenand#8217;s (1905and#8211;71) personal life, his daughter, Betsy Connor Bowen, follows the path left by her father as he wrote about the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Great Depression, World War II, the McCarthy era, the presidency of John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam War.
and#160;A riveting account of the life and times of an American journalist, Connor Bowenand#8217;s biography of Bowen is a daughterand#8217;s quest to find her father through his work at the intersections of journalism, democracy, and liberalism.
and#160;Bowenand#8217;s life and work were shaped by his conviction that finding the right stories and telling them with the right words could create a better world. He wrote about criminals, poverty, illness, discrimination, and other matters of social injustice. While writing to advance causes he believed in and lending a voice to the less fortunate, he struggled to maintain his marriage and provide for his family. Although he made mistakes in both his professional and personal life, Connor Bowen celebrates his ability, even in failure, to maintain bold moral integrity.
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Review
"A worthy successor to Dr. Johnsons Lives of the Poets: John Sutherland is witty, incisive, idiosyncratic, and has the keenest of eyes for the telling detail. While recounting the stories of so many fascinating authors, Lives of the Novelists also offers a memorable portrait of a critical life devoted to reading and writing."—James Shapiro, Professor of English, Columbia University
Review
"John Sutherland is among the handful of critics whose every book I must have. Hes sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued, with a generous heart and a wise head. This self-assured and knowledgeable survey of novels in English is invaluable as both a reference work and, wonderfully, a book to savor."—Jay Parini
Review
“An engaging book. . . erudite and entertaining, informative and provoking.”—Allan Massie, Wall Street Journal
Review
“Tremendously exhilarating . . . you can read Sutherland for fun as well as for (cultural) profit. . . . Lives of the Novelists might look like an academic tome, but it reads like one of those unputdownable blockbusters you take to the beach.”—Michael Dirda, Washington Post
Review
"This is one of the most delightful books of its kind I know. . . . there is so much acute intelligence, wit and wisdom in this epic shlep
through biographical vaudeville that scandal and outrage sit cheek by jowl with Freudian resonance and Johnsonian acuteness. . . . I think old Sam Johnson would be pleased that one of his descendants had written a reference book as engaging, shrewd, witty and irresistible to contemporary tastes as this one.”—Jeff Simon, Buffalo News
Review
“Sutherland's writing is just plain delightful . . . [and] the body of knowledge this book reflects is astounding. . . . It tells the story of the people who've told our culture's stories, high and low and otherwise, for 2-1/2 centuries.”—Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
Review
“Engaging”—Magan Szwarek, Booklist Carolyn Kellogg - Los Angeles Times
Review
"A tremendously exhilarating book . . . less a work of scholarship than it is a catalogue of pleasures . . . By its heft, Lives of the Novelists might look like an academic tome, but it reads like one of those unputdownable blockbusters you take to the beach."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post Magan Szwarek - Booklist
Review
“Sutherland excels with his unexpected inclusions. . . . consider passing copies along to friends who are readers . . . weve been offered a starting point for many hours of literary discussions.”—John McIntyre, Daily Beast Michael Dirda - Washington Post
Review
“This chatty, companionable, undogmatic tome . . . leaves one with the happy feeling that there are no human activities more worthwhile than writing and reading novels.”—New Yorker John McIntyre - Daily Beast
Review
“This is a fabulous book—it's impossible to stop at just one biography.”—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness New Yorker
Review
“Fleet-footed . . . bighearted . . . [Sutherland] revels in the short take, the darting, sonnet-like in-and-out, the lightning shifts and the abrupt and fitting close.”—Christopher Benfey, New York Times Book Review Marilyn Dahl - Shelf Awareness
Review
"This is one of those books you can open to any page and start reading. . . . His publisher calls it 'opinionated,' and I call it a reference book that rocks."—Florence King, National Review Christopher Benfey - New York Times Book Review
Review
“Sutherlands book is at once far more entertaining, more informative, and more personal than the standard product. Everything in Sutherland comes with an edge.”—John Wilson, Commonweal Florence King - National Review
Review
“Nibble at this large volume randomly, or gobble it up from beginning to end, and either way you'll come upon nuggets of wry humor. The tone is entertaining throughout [and] rich with anecdotes . . . and there's nary a wasted word.”—Susan K. Perry, Psychology Today John Wilson - Commonweal
Review
“Frequently observant, occasionally infuriating, consistently arresting”—Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Susan K. Perry - Psychology Today
Review
and#8220;Croswell Bowen was a man full of contradictions, and life did not always deal him a fair hand. Difficult he sometimes may have been, but you cannot take away his talent as a writer and reporter or fault his generosity of spirit. He deserves not to be forgotten, and thanks to this loving and eloquent portrait by his oldest daughter, he wonand#8217;t be.and#8221;and#8212;Robert Cowley, author and founding editor of
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and#160;
Review
and#8220;Walking the tricky line between biography and memoir with aplomb, Betsy Connor Bowen paints a portrait of her New Deal liberal photo-reporter father that shows him in his literary glory but with his flaws as welland#8212;which makes him all the more intriguing. Fascinating and heart-breaking.and#8221;and#8212;Heath Lee, author of
Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Causeand#160;
Review
and#8220;This book is an homage to all those who, like Croswell Bowen, dare to face the blank page, who live from one story to the next in order to understand and articulate the world they knowand#8212;and, ideally, script a better one. An engrossing must-read for aspiring and veteran journalists alike.and#8221;and#8212;Stacey Chase, freelance writer for the
Boston Globe and
Globe Magazine, the
Christian Science Monitor, and
NewsweekSynopsis
In the spirit of Dr. Johnsons Lives of the Poets, acclaimed critic and scholar John Sutherland tours the history of fiction in English
Synopsis
In the spirit of Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, acclaimed critic and scholar John Sutherland tours the history of fiction in English
No previous author has attempted a book such as this: a complete history of novels written in the English language, from the genre's seventeenth-century origins to the present day. In the spirit of Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, acclaimed critic and scholar John Sutherland selects 294 writers whose works illustrate the best of every kind of fiction--from gothic, penny dreadful, and pornography to fantasy, romance, and high literature. Each author was chosen, Professor Sutherland explains, because his or her books are well worth reading and are likely to remain so for at least another century. Sutherland presents these authors in chronological order, in each case deftly combining a lively and informative biographical sketch with an opinionated assessment of the writer's work. Taken together, these novelists provide both a history of the novel and a guide to its rich variety. Always entertaining, and sometimes shocking, Sutherland considers writers as diverse as Daniel Defoe, Henry James, James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, Michael Crichton, Jeffrey Archer, and Jacqueline Susann.
Written for all lovers of fiction, Lives of the Novelists succeeds both as introduction and re-introduction, as Sutherland presents favorite and familiar novelists in new ways and transforms the less favored and less familiar through his relentlessly fascinating readings.
Synopsis
No previous author has attempted a book such as this: a complete history of novels written in the English language, from the genre's seventeenth-century origins to the present day. In the spirit of Dr. Johnsons
Lives of the Poets, acclaimed critic and scholar John Sutherland selects 294 writers whose works illustrate the best of every kind of fiction—from gothic, penny dreadful, and pornography to fantasy, romance, and high literature. Each author was chosen, Professor Sutherland explains, because his or her books are well worth reading and are likely to remain so for at least another century. Sutherland presents these authors in chronological order, in each case deftly combining a lively and informative biographical sketch with an opinionated assessment of the writer's work. Taken together, these novelists provide both a history of the novel and a guide to its rich variety. Always entertaining, and sometimes shocking, Sutherland considers writers as diverse as Daniel Defoe, Henry James, James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, Michael Crichton, Jeffrey Archer, and Jacqueline Susann.
Written for all lovers of fiction, Lives of the Novelists succeeds both as introduction and re-introduction, as Sutherland presents favorite and familiar novelists in new ways and transforms the less favored and less familiar through his relentlessly fascinating readings.
About the Author
BETSY CONNOR BOWEN has worked as a community organizer, elementary school teacher, college instructor and assistant professor, securities analyst, journalist, and filmmaker. She is the author of a young adult novella, Spring Bear, and the editor of her father's World War II memoir, Back from Tobruk (Potomac Books, 2012).