On Writers and Writing

1st printing. 302pp. Bright, clean & tight copy, unread, in Near Fine condition w/slight crinkling to bottom front cover's edge, o/w unmarked. "Gathered posthumously from The New York Times Book Review and other publications, this compilation of essays and reviews solidifies John Gardner's legacy as a consummate teacher and controversial critic with a provocative sense of humor. Writing about his fellow craftsmen, John Gardner offers piercing insights into those whose works he admired and those whose works he didn t. In exacting unapologetic evaluations upon writers such as Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John Cheever, Larry Woiwode, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Updike, Gardner separates genuine fiction from fakery, careful not to spare his own writings in the process, and in doing so, he displays his influences and wide-reaching observations of the literary life. [] Refreshingly unpredictable and self-aware, this collection lays bare the core qualities of lasting fiction and is essential reading for anyone interested in American literature." [publisher copy] In addition to Charles Johnson's introductory memoir/elegy & Gardner's nonfiction, included are a late unpublished short story "Julius Caesar and the Werewolf" & his notebook's "General Plan for The Sunlight Dialogues," his early masterpiece, offering great insight into his writing drafts. "For Gardner, fiction is real and earnest. The reader who takes it equally seriously will get much from this book."--New York Times. "Popular novelist, critic, teacher and classics scholar, Gardner, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1982, insisted that fiction should be moral and life-affirming. These 29 essays and reviews, gathered from the New York Times Book Review, Antaeus, Saturday Review and elsewhere, are sprinkled with sharp put-downs. For example, Gardner calls John Updike's characters 'hypersensitive whiners,' deems Walker Percy's novel Lancelot 'typical bad art . . . pompous' and labels Graham Greene's The Comedians as entertainment that 'makes a casual pass at art.' Gardner is refreshingly unpredictable, admiring such writers as William Gaddis, Italo Calvino, John Fowles, William Gass and Lewis Carroll. His high critical standards and gimlet insights shine through. Included are a prickly autobiographical sketch ("Cartoons"), the marvelous essay 'What Writers Do' and a short story 'Julius Caesar and the Werewolf.'"--Publishers Weekly. Near Fine paperback w/brilliant corners & crisp edges (mostly), a square & tight binding w/no creases in spine. Quite presentable.