In Extremis : The Life of Laura Riding

Deborah Baker

ISBN 10: 024112834X / ISBN 13: 9780241128343

Published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1993

About this Item

An uncommonly fine First Edition copy! Fine in hardcover (square, tight, and bright) in a fine condition dust jacket -- clean, bright, and tight -- which has not been price-clipped. First UK edition; first printing (full number line present). No soiling, no foxing, and no defects. Suitable condition for adding to a library collection, or for presentation as a gift. Ships from NC. All hardbacks are sealed in recycled plastic, packaged securely, and shipped promptly with tracking information. (R-1.).

Seller Inventory # 720230946

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Extremis : The Life of Laura Riding
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 024112834X
• ISBN 13: 9780241128343
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • American Literature
  • Poetry & Poets

About this title

Synopsis

Previous owner's initials in ink on the front free endpaper.

From the Back Cover

In her poetry, fiction, essays, and public statements, Laura Riding, the author of twenty-three books, tackled feminism, communism, sexuality, Freud, language and belief, and the coming-of-age of the American dream. In her personal relationships she was often at the center of a circle of friends and artists whose activities she inspired and sometimes controlled. Her extraordinary range of associates included writers as diverse as Hart Crane, Gertrude Stein, Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, Allen Tate, and Robert Penn Warren. During a long and "scandalous" affair with Robert Graves, she watched over his most productive period and guided much of his best work. Together they launched the New Criticism. Laura Riding, who died in 1991 at the age of ninety, was a deeply divided woman whose ability to create a personal mythology and continually reimagine herself could be both astonishing and maddening. The frequent subject of outrageous rumor and intense controversy, she has been portrayed as a megalomaniac, a sexual libertine, a femme fatale, even a witch. In this biography, Deborah Baker considers Laura Riding in the context of her background, her times, and, most importantly, her work. She removes the layers of conjecture, bias, and sometimes sheer nonsense that have distorted Riding's life, reputation, and scale of achievement.