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by J. B. Priestley ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Not an autobiography in the sense of being a life story, but rather reminiscences of a life in writing, this gives a perceptive and amazingly objective close-up portrait of the man himself. Writing was an obsession almost from childhood, and yet he thought of himself as an essayist first, a dramatist second, a novelist (the role in which the general reading public views him) last. He sums up his self appraisal in these words:- ""I am too conventional for the vant garde, too experimental for Aunt Edna; too extroverted for the too introverted for the extroverts; a lowbrow to highbrow, a highbrow to lowbrow."" This is an honest book which- in its analysis of the processes of learning to write by writing should be required reading for the aspirants. There is more of his life than many know of him, such as his home background, his years in the trenches, and -- for the delectation of the collectors of memorabilia, the literary social round in London, where he knew most of the lions and made friends and enemies among them. Not a major book, but a real contribution to personal literary history.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 1163811300

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION