Syncopations [[electronic resource] ] : Beats, New Yorkers, and writers in the dark / / James Campbell

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910779551103321
• Autore: Campbell James <1951->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2008
• ISBN: 0-520-94108-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (246 p.)
• Disciplina: 810.9/97471
• Soggetti: American literature - 20th century - History and criticism; American literature - African American authors - History and criticism; Beat generation; Authors, Scottish - 20th century; New York (N.Y.) Intellectual life 20th century
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- PART I. New York New Yorkers -- PART II. Through the Grapevine -- PART III. Syncopations -- CODA. Boswell and Mrs. Miller
• Sommario/riassunto: This compulsively readable collection of profiles and essays by James Campbell, tied together by a beguiling autobiographical thread, proffers unique observations on writers and writing in the post-1950s period. Campbell considers writers associated with the New Yorker magazine, including John Updike, William Maxwell, Truman Capote, and Jonathan Franzen. Continuing his longterm engagement with African American authors, he offers an account of his legal battle with the FBI over James Baldwin's file and a new profile of Amiri Baraka. He also focuses on the Beat poets Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, as well as writers such as Edmund White and Thom Gunn. Campbell's concluding essay on his childhood in Scotland gracefully connects the book's autobiographical dots.