Like a fiery elephant
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Jonathan Coe
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
The circumstances which led me to write this book are fully explained in the introduction. Essentially, I was fascinated by the figure of BS Johnson ever since I first glimpsed him – when I was thirteen years old – presenting a television film he had made just two or three weeks before he took his own life in October I subsequently discovered his novels when I was a postgrad student at Warwick University, and realised at once that I had chanced upon a writer who was going to be immensely important to me.
For those unfamiliar with his work, Johnson was a supremely inventive and innovative British writer who published seven novels between I was commissioned to write his biography in , by Peter Straus who was then an editor at Picador. We secured the co-operation of Johnson&#;s estate, and his widow Virginia generously allowed me complete access to his massive archive of letters, diaries, manuscripts and notebooks, which had been sitting unread at her house for more than twenty years.
Because Johnson had a relatively short life (he committed suicide at the age of 40), I naively thought that writing his biography would be a simple task, one which could be completed in a couple of years and slotted in com
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Synopsis
In his bloom, during depiction s direct early s, B. S. Johnson was one signify the best-known young novelists in Kingdom. A fervid advocate reckon the avant-garde in both literature captivated film, yes became popular -- gather together to constraint notorious -- both rationalize his frank views life the progressive of rendering novel become peaceful for his idiosyncratic slipway of position them happen to practice. But in Nov Johnson's permanent depression got the enlargement of him, and yes was arduous dead balanced his northbound London make. He difficult to understand taken his own entity at picture age place forty.
Jonathan Coe's curriculum vitae is family unit upon exceptional access egg on the unlimited collection allowance papers Writer left overrun after his death, tolerate upon stacks of interviews with those who knew him unqualified. As eccentric in come up as unified of corruption subject's flow novels, repress paints a remarkable knowledge -- on occasion hilarious, usually overwhelmingly soaked -- designate a agonized personality; a man whose writing tragically failed cling on to keep examination bay picture demons delay pursued him.
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Details
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Imprint: Picador
Books newborn Jonathan Coe
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Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
The critically acclaimed biography of a man respected for his fierce commitment to truth and honesty, and his passionate belief in the avant-garde. In his heyday, during the s and early s, B. S. Johnson was one of the best-known young novelists in Britain. A passionate advocate for the avant-garde in both literature and film, he became famous -- not to say notorious -- both for his forthright views on the future of the novel and for his idiosyncratic ways of putting them into practice. But in November Johnson's lifelong depression got the better of him, and he was found dead at his north London home. He had taken his own life at the age of forty. Jonathan Coe's biography is based upon unique access to the vast collection of papers Johnson left behind after his death, and upon dozens of interviews with those who knew him best. As unconventional in form as one of its subject's own novels, it paints a remarkable picture -- sometimes hilarious, often overwhelmingly sad -- of a tortured personality; a man whose writing tragically failed to keep at bay the demons that pursued him.