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 In The Life of Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader, acclaimed editor of The Letters of Kingsley Amis, draws not only on unpublished works and correspondence but also on interviews with a wide range of Amis’s friends, relatives, fellow writers, students and colleagues, many of whom have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
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Page 2
... stay with me , even when there are a half a dozen of them occupying the same book's - even when he gives them qual- ities and capacities he does not possess . Andrew Davies , who adapted Amis's The Old Devils for television , once heard ...
... stay with me , even when there are a half a dozen of them occupying the same book's - even when he gives them qual- ities and capacities he does not possess . Andrew Davies , who adapted Amis's The Old Devils for television , once heard ...
Page 13
... stay by his side throughout their journey , rather than join up with friends . " In the Memoirs , Amis presents his father as controlling in general , but also for reasons of class and economy . His father's father , Joseph James Amis ...
... stay by his side throughout their journey , rather than join up with friends . " In the Memoirs , Amis presents his father as controlling in general , but also for reasons of class and economy . His father's father , Joseph James Amis ...
Page 30
... stay and see the New Year in with us and Oh Pud we don't often see you and Oh Pud we shan't be here much longer , quite apart from the fact that Hilly wouldn't stand being left alone with them , nor would it make me easy in my mind if ...
... stay and see the New Year in with us and Oh Pud we don't often see you and Oh Pud we shan't be here much longer , quite apart from the fact that Hilly wouldn't stand being left alone with them , nor would it make me easy in my mind if ...
Page 31
... stay until the Monday morning , so that we can have the maximum time there . There won't be much to do , of course , but the four of us will be quite happy , I expect , on our own , in the family circle . ' Such ( to Amis ) pointless ...
... stay until the Monday morning , so that we can have the maximum time there . There won't be much to do , of course , but the four of us will be quite happy , I expect , on our own , in the family circle . ' Such ( to Amis ) pointless ...
Page 58
... stay put ) and Mr Pearson enters , for Latin unseen , a lesson in which boys ' went up to him in turn at his desk to have their last week's efforts briefly gone over ; the rest of the time they translated one of his selections from the ...
... stay put ) and Mr Pearson enters , for Latin unseen , a lesson in which boys ' went up to him in turn at his desk to have their last week's efforts briefly gone over ; the rest of the time they translated one of his selections from the ...
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 |
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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