Ce site utilise des cookies pour fournir nos services, optimiser les performances, pour les analyses, et (si vous n'êtes pas connecté) pour les publicités. En utilisant Librarything, vous reconnaissez avoir lu et compris nos conditions générales d'utilisation et de services. Votre utilisation du site et de ses services vaut acceptation de ces conditions et termes.
Résultats trouvés sur Google Books
Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
"During the first four tumultuous decades of this century, Willard Huntington Wright lived two lives: before World War I, he was a pioneering art critic and editor of the avant-garde magazine The Smart Set, who numbered among his friends Alfred Stieglitz, H. L. Mencken, and Theodore Dreiser. In the 1920s, he transformed himself into S. S. Van Dine, one of America's best-selling authors. Mysteries featuring his detective Philo Vance--The Benson Murder Case, The "Canary" Murder Case, The Bishop Murder Case, among others--sold more than a million copies by the end of the decade, and dominated book sales during the first rough months of the Great Depression. Even by the standards of the Jazz Age, Wright lived an outsized life--in his palatial Manhattan penthouse he maintained an aquarium of two thousand exotic fish. But by the late 1930s, he was a broken, desperate man consumed by the fear of failure that had shadowed him all his life. The fashions of detective fiction had changed--Wright deplored the "all booze and erections style" of his competitor Dashiell Hammett--and he was reduced to writing novelizations of his failed screenplays in order to get by." "John Loughery depicts in bewitching detail the rise and fall of a writer who helped create the modern detective novel, and tells with heartbreaking eloquence the story of a man whose fame ultimately destroyed him. Re-creating the artistic spirit of a lost world, Alias S. S. Van Dine is a brilliant work of literary archaeology that resurrects a man, his books, and the era whose glamour and flaws he came to represent so completely."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (plus d'informations)
It's a well-researched, balanced biography on a very complex subject. W H Wright (Van Dine's real name) was an elusive and contradictory character, very difficult to put your finger on. On the other hand, his life is well-documented through hundreds of letters, hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, and numerous acquaintances. He was a dogmatic and ferocious art critic, a great expender of money, and up to his forties he lived from hand to mouth for several years. The Philo Vance mystery novels allowed him to become rich and live like the European intellectual dandy he aspired to be (sort of Gabrielle d'Annunzio or J-K. Huysmans). His mystery novels have aged a lot but are still a touchstone for anyone who wants to know what mystery writing in America was in the 1930s. ( )
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
For Virginia and Edward Loughery
Premiers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
From the beginning, Willard Huntington Wright's objectives were lofty: the raising of American journalism and criticism to new heights and the emancipation of American literature.
Citations
Derniers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
It is appropriate that Stanton's fine painting, echoing the colors and style of Cezanne, suggests not the later, defeated side of his brother's life, but the earlier, brighter moment of confidence in his own and in America's future.
Références à cette œuvre sur des ressources externes.
Wikipédia en anglais
Aucun
▾Descriptions de livres
"During the first four tumultuous decades of this century, Willard Huntington Wright lived two lives: before World War I, he was a pioneering art critic and editor of the avant-garde magazine The Smart Set, who numbered among his friends Alfred Stieglitz, H. L. Mencken, and Theodore Dreiser. In the 1920s, he transformed himself into S. S. Van Dine, one of America's best-selling authors. Mysteries featuring his detective Philo Vance--The Benson Murder Case, The "Canary" Murder Case, The Bishop Murder Case, among others--sold more than a million copies by the end of the decade, and dominated book sales during the first rough months of the Great Depression. Even by the standards of the Jazz Age, Wright lived an outsized life--in his palatial Manhattan penthouse he maintained an aquarium of two thousand exotic fish. But by the late 1930s, he was a broken, desperate man consumed by the fear of failure that had shadowed him all his life. The fashions of detective fiction had changed--Wright deplored the "all booze and erections style" of his competitor Dashiell Hammett--and he was reduced to writing novelizations of his failed screenplays in order to get by." "John Loughery depicts in bewitching detail the rise and fall of a writer who helped create the modern detective novel, and tells with heartbreaking eloquence the story of a man whose fame ultimately destroyed him. Re-creating the artistic spirit of a lost world, Alias S. S. Van Dine is a brilliant work of literary archaeology that resurrects a man, his books, and the era whose glamour and flaws he came to represent so completely."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
▾Descriptions provenant de bibliothèques
Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque
▾Description selon les utilisateurs de LibraryThing
)
Google Books — Chargement...
(3.5)
1