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The Writer's Life : Intimate Thoughts on Work, Love, Inspiration, and Fame from the Diaries of the World's Great Writers |
List Price: $19.00
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Description:
Books of quotations tend toward the pithy and the trite. A quotation is the literary equivalent of a sound bite, after all--clever or funny or wise, and nearly always short, if not sweet. In The Writer's Life, a collection of excerpts from writers' diaries, Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenks have gone after something different altogether. Yes, the book has its share of one-liners, but there are also plenty of longer, ruminating passages, some stretching the length of a full page. More than 200 writers weigh in on subjects concerning both life and work. "Our goal," state the editors in an introductory note, "was not to create a scholarly book or one of interest only to writers or lovers of great writing, but rather to create ... [a] book in which readers can find aspects of their own experiences revealed through the lens of art." What also sets this book apart from many of its ilk is the rigor with which its editors sought out new material for their entries. In addition to following the more traditional paths of research--bookstores, rare-book dealers, libraries, the Internet--they asked hundreds of contemporary writers for entries from their diaries. Their efforts pay off. The conversationalists gathered here--including John Cheever, Rita Dove, Athol Fugard, Witold Gombrowicz, Barbara Pym, Theodore Roethke, J.D. McClatchy, and Leo and Sophia Tolstoy--make for fine company indeed. --Jane Steinberg
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