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 In The Life of Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader, acclaimed editor of The Letters of Kingsley Amis, draws not only on unpublished works and correspondence but also on interviews with a wide range of Amis’s friends, relatives, fellow writers, students and colleagues, many of whom have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 61
Page 18
... Sunday School . In Amis's upbringing , " God never came into the conversation . God was never actually referred to or appealed to , and there was no question of displeasing God by my actions or trying to please him . Yet all the ...
... Sunday School . In Amis's upbringing , " God never came into the conversation . God was never actually referred to or appealed to , and there was no question of displeasing God by my actions or trying to please him . Yet all the ...
Page 21
... Sunday school and for everything else . " ' Thank you for saying that , old chap . ' The ideal , though by no means the only possible , reader of Sorrell and Son , ' Amis writes , ' is a middle - aged white - collar worker in the ...
... Sunday school and for everything else . " ' Thank you for saying that , old chap . ' The ideal , though by no means the only possible , reader of Sorrell and Son , ' Amis writes , ' is a middle - aged white - collar worker in the ...
Page 67
... Sunday evenings , which had to be given over to blancoing and polishing ' . Like Norden , Metliss ' felt pathetic ' wearing his OTC uniform on the tube . ' Why don't you join the signals , ' Amis suggested in 1939 ; ' we only have to ...
... Sunday evenings , which had to be given over to blancoing and polishing ' . Like Norden , Metliss ' felt pathetic ' wearing his OTC uniform on the tube . ' Why don't you join the signals , ' Amis suggested in 1939 ; ' we only have to ...
Page 78
... Sunday newspaper . I suppose I envied him his air of being completely his own man.25 Wybrow left CLS before the move to Marlborough , which Amis regrets : ' I would give a lot to be able to see , in retrospect , the figure of Wybrow ...
... Sunday newspaper . I suppose I envied him his air of being completely his own man.25 Wybrow left CLS before the move to Marlborough , which Amis regrets : ' I would give a lot to be able to see , in retrospect , the figure of Wybrow ...
Page 80
... , Sonnet - sequences , Sunday walks ; Then , during one of their talks , The youngster caressed his cheek , And that made it all worth while . Amis's intended ' relationship ' with Metliss sounds more Ralph- 80 The Life of Kingsley Amis .
... , Sonnet - sequences , Sunday walks ; Then , during one of their talks , The youngster caressed his cheek , And that made it all worth while . Amis's intended ' relationship ' with Metliss sounds more Ralph- 80 The Life of Kingsley Amis .
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