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 In The Life of Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader, acclaimed editor of The Letters of Kingsley Amis, draws not only on unpublished works and correspondence but also on interviews with a wide range of Amis’s friends, relatives, fellow writers, students and colleagues, many of whom have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 83
Page 9
... seems to connect him to ' thousands of good chaps ' . Amis , the most clubbable of men , wouldn't ( also couldn't ) live alone . Though his habitual stance was oppositional , he craved companionship throughout his life ; though fiercely ...
... seems to connect him to ' thousands of good chaps ' . Amis , the most clubbable of men , wouldn't ( also couldn't ) live alone . Though his habitual stance was oppositional , he craved companionship throughout his life ; though fiercely ...
Page 14
... seems to have stalled . From 1920 until his retire- ment his salary went up in very modest and not always yearly incre- ments . In 1922 , the year his son was born , it was £ 390 ; in 1934 , when Amis entered the City of London School ...
... seems to have stalled . From 1920 until his retire- ment his salary went up in very modest and not always yearly incre- ments . In 1922 , the year his son was born , it was £ 390 ; in 1934 , when Amis entered the City of London School ...
Page 23
... seems to me to be about ten to one ; this , of course , is not the case , but what struck me most forcibly was their ... seem to bear this without a murmur , but I am sure this is merely outward show and they are really seething inside ...
... seems to me to be about ten to one ; this , of course , is not the case , but what struck me most forcibly was their ... seem to bear this without a murmur , but I am sure this is merely outward show and they are really seething inside ...
Page 48
Zachary Leader. surround it , but a strange sunset , one that seems , surreally , ' full of feathers and of feathers that almost brushed the face ' , suffuses the atmosphere , mingling with the glow from big Chinese lanterns hanging ...
Zachary Leader. surround it , but a strange sunset , one that seems , surreally , ' full of feathers and of feathers that almost brushed the face ' , suffuses the atmosphere , mingling with the glow from big Chinese lanterns hanging ...
Page 84
... seems to have spent some part of them exploring the surrounding countryside . The college itself , its buildings and grounds , also had its attractions , among them the ' dear diligent indolence ' ( Keats ) of summer afternoons spent ...
... seems to have spent some part of them exploring the surrounding countryside . The college itself , its buildings and grounds , also had its attractions , among them the ' dear diligent indolence ' ( Keats ) of summer afternoons spent ...
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