The Life of Graham Greene Volume 1: 1904-1939

Description

'Probably the best biography ever written of a living author.' Philip French, Listener Unquestionably one of the greatest novelists of his time, Graham Greene had always guarded his privacy, remaining aloof, mysterious and unpredictable. Nonetheless, he took the surprising step of allowing Norman Sherry complete access to letter and diaries, and gave his consent to this full and frank biography in three volumes - the first of which takes Greene's life up to the beginning of the Second World War when he published some of his most remarkable work, including Journey Without Maps (1935), England Made Me (1935), A Gun for Sale (1936), Brighton Rock (1938) and The Confidential Agent (1939). At the heart of the story lies a remarkable series of letters Greene wrote to his wife, Vivien, for whose sake he became a Catholic. They show us an unknown, younger Greene, impassioned and romantic. Sherry also recounts in fascinating detail how Greene struggled to turn himself into a novelist and learn his craft, and follows his subject's pre-war footsteps to West Africa and Mexico, where he was able to penetrate far into the strange and alarming territory that Greene has made his own. The book that emerges is without doubt one of the most revealing literary biographies of the decade.

Norman Sherry, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, is also the author of Conrad's Eastern World, Conrad's Western World, Charlotte and Emily Bront- and Jane Austen. The Life of Graham Greene, Volume II- 1939-1955 appeared as one of the Books of the Century- A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature, New York- Random House, 1998, and was chosen by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as 'one of the best eleven books of 1995.'

"A monumental biography...brilliant and admirable, capturing not only the pity and the despair, the anger and the nihilism of Greene's witness, but also the incorrigible sense of fun." --Auberon Waugh "Probably the best biography ever of a living author." --Philip French "An astonishingly thorough yet readable story, hard-nosed yet sympathetic, which portrays not only the writer himself but the times he lived through in Proustian detail." --Margaret Atwood "A great writer who spoke brilliantly to a whole generation." --Alec Guinness "From the Hardcover edition."