Kenneth Tynan : A Life

Shellard, Dominic

ISBN 10: 0300099193 / ISBN 13: 9780300099195

Published by Yale University Press, 2003,, 2003

About this Item

1st edition, hardback, large 8vo, xiv,399pp, illustrated, clean and sound, no inscriptions, Very Good / Very Good dustwrapper. ISBN: 0300099193.

Seller Inventory # 662631

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Kenneth Tynan : A Life
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 2003,
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300099193
• ISBN 13: 9780300099195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • biography

About this title

Synopsis

Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980) lived one of the most intriguing theatre lives of the twentieth century. A brilliant writer, critic and agent provocateur he made friends or enemies of nearly every major actor, playwright, impresario and movie mogul of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Working on each side of the Atlantic during various periods in his career, Tynan wrote for the Evening Standard, the Observer, and the New Yorker; was lured by Laurence Olivier in the early 1960s to become dramaturg of Britain's newly formed National Theatre; and spent his final years in Los Angeles. This biography offers the first complete appraisal of Tynan's powerful contribution to post-war British theatre, set against the context of the fifties, sixties and seventies of his own turbulent life.
Shellard proves beneath the celebrity myths to uncover Tynan the private man and theatre genius. He draws on Tynan's own extensive personal papers and diaries, taped interviews with theatre professionals who knew him and fascinating letters to such correspondents as Tennessee Williams, Marlene Dietrich, George Devine, Peter Brook, Alec Guiness and Terence Rattigan. Shellard highlights Tynan's early writings, when the brilliant young critic came to national prominence, and discusses how Tynan gained a left-wing readership, took his place at the vanguard of the new realist movement, and helped to establish subsidized theatre. He shows how, through indefatigable battles against theatre censorship and railings against the myopia of a politically and culturally insular Britain, Tynan helped create some of the most controversial theatrical events of the 1960s and 70s, including Oh Calcutta! Exploring the public and private sides of Tynan, Shellard reveals an outspoken, explicit and sometimes savage critic who ranks among the most influential theatre figures of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Dominic Shellard is Reader in English Literature at the University of Sheffield.