Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex - Hardcover

Wilson, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747592659 ISBN 13: 9780747592655

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2007

Synopsis

Harold Robbins, the godfather of the airport novel pulsating with sex and glamour, changed the face of publishing with classics such as "The Carpetbaggers", "The Dream Merchants" and "The Lonely Lady". His readers loved his steamy tales of money, soft porn, drugs, corruption, greed and, just sometimes, redemption, while his fans included Pablo Picasso, Mario Puzo, James Baldwin, Jackie Collins, Sidney Sheldon and Camille Paglia.In his lifetime, his book sales exceeded 750 million, and he became as much a part of the sexual and social revolution as the Pill, "Playboy" and pot. Responsible for the whole new genre of commercial publishing, Harold Robbins unintentionally spawned the careers of writers such as Jacqueline Susann, Judith Krantz and Shirley Conran. The world's first playboy writer, he reportedly frittered away $50 million on fast cars, loose women and high living. Obsessed with fame and fortune, Harold Robbins was a deeply complex and often controversial man; a constant master of self-invention, even his closest friends and lovers could only guess at the past of the man behind the perma-tanned mask and gigantic mirrored sunglasses.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Wilson remembers secretly reading Harold Robbins as a teenager, and has spoken to many friends, lovers and enemies of this most provocative of writers. Wilson's other books are the award-winning biography Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith, and the novel The Lying Tongue.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747592659
• ISBN 13: 9780747592655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320