Keepers of the Flame: Literary Estates and the Rise of Biography - Hardcover

Hamilton, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091742633 ISBN 13: 9780091742638

Publisher: Hutchinson, 1992

Synopsis

Many of our most treasured works of literature, including John Donne's sonnets and Shakespeare's plays, have been preserved more by accident than by design. Key writings from the past have been burned, stolen, suppressed or "edited" by widows or friends anxious to preserve a sanitized image of the writer in question, sometimes for profit or self-aggrandizement. This book unravels the secret history behind the "greats" of modern literature, showing how their reputations have been made, tarnished or falsified. Beginning in the 17th century, the author examines the cases of authors such as Marvell, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Boswell, Burns, Shelley, Byron, Forster, Dickens, Tennyson, Swinburne, Stevenson, Henry James, Kipling, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin. The book also looks at the role of copyright law, libraries, publishers and literary agents, adding to the modern debate on the moral issues of modern biography.

About this title

About the Author:

Ian Hamilton was born in 1938, in King's Lynn, Norfolk, and educated at Darlington Grammar School and Keble College, Oxford. In 1962, he founded the influential poetry magazine, the Review, and he was later editor of the New Review. He also wrote biographies and journalism, mainly about literature and football. He died in 2001.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hutchinson
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0091742633
• ISBN 13: 9780091742638
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344