Items related to Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Synopsis
"A wonderful offbeat memoir.... Holroyd has written perhaps his best book yet."―Ben Macintyre, New York Times Book Review
Renowned biographer Michael Holroyd had always assumed that his own family was perfectly English, or at least perfectly ordinary. But an investigation into the Holroyd past―guided by old photograph albums, crumbling documents, and his parents' wildly divergent accounts of their lives―gradually yields clues to a constellation of startling events and eccentric characters: a slow decline from English nobility on one side, a dramatic Scandinavian ancestry on the other. Fires, suicides, bankruptcies, divorces, unconsummated longings, and the rumor of an Indian tea fortune permeate this wry, candid memoir, "part multiple biography, part autobiography, but principally an oblique investigation of the biographer's art" (New York Times Book Review). "[A] perfect example of a memoir that entrances me."―Katherine A. Powers, Boston Sunday Globe "[O]ne of the few [biographers] who can convey what makes ordinary as well as extraordinary mortals live in our minds."―Los Angeles Times 16 pages of photographs"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
The distinguished biographer of Lytton Strachey and Bernard Shaw turns his trained eye on his kin in a thoughtful work that is as much a meditation on the nature of biography as a family memoir. Basil Street Blues has its origins in recollections Michael Holroyd asked his parents to write in the late 1970s, long after their 12-year marriage had ended. They agreed about little, not even the date of their son's birth in 1935, and Holroyd probes these discrepancies with the same brisk lucidity he has brought to subjects less intimately connected to his own life. Readers accustomed to the woe-is-me authorial stance frequently assumed in currently fashionable memoirs of familial dysfunction will be surprised by the impartial sympathy and considerable humor with which Holroyd depicts the financial, social, and sexual missteps of his parents, grandparents, and other relatives. Perhaps it's Anglo-Saxon stoicism inherited from his British father, perhaps the Scandinavian fatalism of his Swedish mother, but Holroyd has an impressive ability to view even his own youthful unhappiness with calm detachment. His elegantly written chronicle of "secret episodes and half-suspected dramas" nicely achieves its declared purpose: "to pare back a little the cuticle of time and to apply the research methods I have learnt as a biographer to my own life." --Wendy Smith
About the Author
Michael Holroyd has written celebrated biographies of Hugh Kingsmill, Augustus John, and Bernard Shaw, as well as the acclaimed Basil Street Blues and Mosaic. He lives in London with his wife.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 0393321746
- ISBN 13 9780393321746
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages306
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 21.13
Shipping:
US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Other Popular Editions of the Same Title
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00074986900
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues : A Memoir
Published by
Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W., 2001
ISBN 10: 0393321746
ISBN 13: 9780393321746
Used
Softcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 3242731-6
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.85. Seller Inventory # G0393321746I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.85. Seller Inventory # G0393321746I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: HPB-Ruby, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_356451843
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues
Seller: Library House Internet Sales, Grand Rapids, OH, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. The noted biographer examines his own origins with a chronicle of his family, using his parents' accounts of their early lives as a starting point and elaborating with the results of his own explorations into the past. Solid binding. Moderate edgewear on the boards. Moderate shelf wear. Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item. Book. Seller Inventory # 123631990
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 5-0393321746-G
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: Books Unplugged, Amherst, NY, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Fair. Buy with confidence! Book is in acceptable condition with wear to the pages, binding, and some marks within 1.13. Seller Inventory # bk0393321746xvz189zvxacp
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Book is in Used-VeryGood condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain very limited notes and highlighting. 1.13. Seller Inventory # 0393321746-2-3
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Basil Street Blues: A Memoir
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Good condition. This is the average used book, that has all pages or leaves present, but may include writing. Book may be ex-library with stamps and stickers. 1.13. Seller Inventory # 353-0393321746-gdd
Quantity: 1 available