MY FATHER AND MYSELF - Softcover

J.R. Ackerley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140032401 ISBN 13: 9780140032406

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, 1971

Synopsis

When his father died, J. R. Ackerley was shocked to discover that he had led a secret life. And after Ackerley himself died, he left a surprise of his this coolly considered, unsparingly honest account of his quest to find out the whole truth about the man who had always eluded him in life. But Ackerley's pursuit of his father is also an exploration of the self, making My Father and Myself a pioneering record, at once sexually explicit and emotionally charged, of life as a gay man. This witty, sorrowful, and beautiful book is a classic of twentieth-century memoir.

About this title

About the Author

J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip, and My Father and Myself, and a novel, We Think the World of You (all available as New York Review Books).

W.H. Auden (1907—1973) was born in North Yorkshire, England, the son of a doctor. He studied at Oxford and published his first book, Poems, in 1930, immediately establishing himself as one of the outstanding voices of his generation. Auden emigrated to New York in 1939, where he became a US citizen and converted to Anglicanism. He wrote essays, critical studies, plays, and opera librettos for such composers as Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, and Hans Werner Henze, as well as the poems for which he is most famous.

Review

It makes today's memoirs look pallid. -- Emma Tennant, British Vogue

J.R. Ackerley's humor is unique; his truth is stranger--and funnier--than fiction. My Father and Myself is a cross between Dickens's David Copperfield, Rousseau's Confessions, and the new pornography. -- Donald Windham

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1971
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140032401
• ISBN 13: 9780140032406
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192