The Life of Kingsley AmisHere 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 polemicist. In The Life of Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader, acclaimed editor of The Letters of Kingsley Amis, draws not only on unpublished works and correspondence but also on interviews with a wide range of Amis’s friends, relatives, fellow writers, students and colleagues, many of whom have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 a compulsively readable 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. Dazzling for its thoroughness, psychological acuity and elegant style, The Life of Kingsley Amis is exemplary: literary biography at its very best. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 79
Page vii
... London 52 4 ( I S at Marlborough 7T 5 Wartime Oxford 92 6 The War 128 7 Post-war Oxford 161 8 Newly Married: Oxford and Eynsham 204 9 Swansea 234 10 Making Lucky Jim 257 11 Fame and Friendship 279 T2 Uncertain Feelings 300 Illustrations ...
... London 52 4 ( I S at Marlborough 7T 5 Wartime Oxford 92 6 The War 128 7 Post-war Oxford 161 8 Newly Married: Oxford and Eynsham 204 9 Swansea 234 10 Making Lucky Jim 257 11 Fame and Friendship 279 T2 Uncertain Feelings 300 Illustrations ...
Page vii
Zachary Leader. Illustrations Introduction I Family 2 Reading and Writing 3 City of London 4 CLS at Marlborough Contents ix I IO 35 52 71 9 R 5 Wartime Oxford 6 The War 92 128 7 Post - war Oxford 161 8 Newly Married : Oxford and Eynsham ...
Zachary Leader. Illustrations Introduction I Family 2 Reading and Writing 3 City of London 4 CLS at Marlborough Contents ix I IO 35 52 71 9 R 5 Wartime Oxford 6 The War 92 128 7 Post - war Oxford 161 8 Newly Married : Oxford and Eynsham ...
Page ix
... London School ( by kind permission of the Headmaster , City of London School ) ; 6 Rev. C.J. Ellingham , Classics Master , CLS ( by kind permission of the Headmaster , City of London School ) ; 7 CLS boys at Marlborough College during ...
... London School ( by kind permission of the Headmaster , City of London School ) ; 6 Rev. C.J. Ellingham , Classics Master , CLS ( by kind permission of the Headmaster , City of London School ) ; 7 CLS boys at Marlborough College during ...
Page 11
... London SW16 , a ward of the borough of Croydon . Norbury , the adult Amis remarked , lacked identity . It was less distin- guished even than neighbouring Streatham . ' At least Streatham had been a country town in the eighteenth century ...
... London SW16 , a ward of the borough of Croydon . Norbury , the adult Amis remarked , lacked identity . It was less distin- guished even than neighbouring Streatham . ' At least Streatham had been a country town in the eighteenth century ...
Page 13
... London School , Amis walked to Norbury station with his father every morning , five days a week . Had CLS held ... London ' . " Kingsley's father was a clerk in the London office of • 13 Family .
... London School , Amis walked to Norbury station with his father every morning , five days a week . Had CLS held ... London ' . " Kingsley's father was a clerk in the London office of • 13 Family .
Contents
1 | |
35 | |
52 | |
71 | |
92 | |
The War | 128 |
Postwar Oxford | 161 |
Oxford and Eynsham | 204 |
Patrick and Dai | 426 |
Cambridge | 449 |
Waking Beauty | 471 |
Breakup | 500 |
Divisions | 521 |
Lefties Toffs and Bigots | 559 |
Lemmons | 600 |
Dissolution | 642 |
Swansea | 234 |
Making Lucky Jim | 257 |
Fame and Friendship | 279 |
Uncertain Feelings | 300 |
Fun | 317 |
Abroad | 330 |
Widening Horizons | 352 |
Princeton | 383 |
Nadir | 684 |
Return | 731 |
Ending Up | 766 |
Afterlife | 811 |
Notes | 827 |
Bibliography | 943 |
Index | 961 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Amis and Jane Amis told Amis wrote Amis's Amises Anthony Powell Anti-Death League Archer asked Biography Blackmur Blake Morrison Bodleian boys called Colin College Conquest December Dixon drink Elizabeth Jane Howard Ellingham English Eric Jacobs Essays Faber father friends funny Fussell Gollancz Hilly Hilly's Huntington Ibid interview Jake's Thing Jane's January jazz John July June Keeley Kingsley Amis later lecturer Lemmons letter to Larkin literary lived London look Lucky Jim lunch March Martin Amis Memoirs never novel novelist November October Old Devils Oxford party Penguin Peterhouse Philip Larkin poems poet poetry political Princeton published Quoted recalls remembers Robert Conquest Russian Hide-and-Seek Sally Salwak September Slipstream sort stay story suggested Sunday Swansea Take a Girl talk tell things thought tion took Uncertain Feeling University Wain week wife women writing wrote to Larkin