Literary biography is an endlessly fascinating form, not least because of the fierce controversies that attend the question of how much of a writer's real life ought to be related to readers. Ian Hamilton, a first-rate biographer who encountering his share of adversity in writing the life of J.D. Salinger, is the perfect chronicler of such controversies in this brilliant study, first published in 1992, which charts the course of literary biography from Donne and Shakespeare to Plath and Larkin. "Such a compelling read". (Antonia Fraser, "Times"). "Lively and informative, powerfully and humorously written". (Anthony Burgess, "Observer"). "Surely the funniest book ever written on the doom-laden issue of posthumous literary fame". (Jonathan Keates, "Independent").

Keepers of the Flame

Literature & Fiction

Hamilton, Ian Qc

British & Irish

Faber&Faber

Legend has it that Hollywood lures gifted writers into its service with sunshine and money, only to treat them as glorified typists and plot-mechanics, peripheral to the main business of moviemaking. This is what Ian Hamilton describes as 'the writer-in-chains saga that emerges from any study of Hollywood during its so-called golden years - the period I have marked as running from 1915-1951.' But in this superb account of what befell the likes of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Chandler and Huxley by working for the Dream Factory, Hamilton argues that these writers 'were in the movies by choice: they earned far more money than their colleagues who did not write for films, and in several cases they applied themselves conscientiously to the not-unimportant task at hand. And they had a lot of laughs...''Fascinating and enjoyable.' New Statesman'Abounds in marvelous stories, apocryphal, fabulous, funny and even true.' ObserverFaber Finds is devoted to restoring to readers a wealth of lost or neglected classics and authors of distinction. The range embraces fiction, non-fiction, the arts and children's books. For a full list of available titles visit www.faberfinds.co.uk. To join the dialogue with fellow book-lovers please see our blog, www.faberfindsblog.co.uk.

Writers in Hollywood 1915-1951

Computers & Technology

Networking & Cloud Computing

'There have been large magazines with tiny circulations and there have been diminutive sheets which have reached thousands of readers. But all 'little magazines' have been small in one or another of these ways, and usually in both... And yet most of them have had arrestingly large-scale ambitions...' From Ian Hamilton (1938-2001), himself the founder of the Review and New Review, comes this matchless survey (first published in 1976) of the literary magazine from 1912-1950: concentrating on those periodicals that enjoyed dominant editorial personalities (the likes of Pound, Eliot, Cyril Connolly) and which, ultimately, proved central to their cultural epoch. 'Our one consolation for Ian Hamilton's early death is that his work seems to have lived on with undiminished force. He helped to shape our generation and at this rate may well do the same for the next as well.' Clive James

The Little Magazines

Reference

Ian Hamilton's last book, published posthumously in 2002, is a typically brilliant revisiting of the concept of Samuel Johnson's classic Lives of the English Poets, wherein Hamilton considers 45 deceased poets of the twentieth century, offering his personal estimation of what claims they will have on posterity and 'against oblivion.' Examples of each poet's verse accompany Hamilton's text, making the book both a provocative primer and a kind of critical anthology. 'The affective power of this book... lies in its understatement and its understanding of what we might care about. From a century of Manifestoes and Movements, Hamilton works as a corrective for the local and particular... his idea of poetry, of what made greatness in poetry, emerges intact from each measured sentence. His criticism always pointed you towards all that he could find that was true in a piece of writing.' Tim Adams, Observer

Against Oblivion

History & Criticism

National Life and National Training

History

BiblioLife

A Staff Officer's Scrap Book

Military

The Ballad of Hadji: And Other Poems

Nabu Press

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Books by Hamilton, Ian Qc