Paris Interzone: Richard Wright, Lolita, Boris Vian and others on the Left Bank, 1946-60 - Softcover

Campbell, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749398698 ISBN 13: 9780749398699

Publisher: Minerva, 1995

Synopsis

In the spring of 1946 the black American novelist, Richard Wright, presented himself at the rue de Fleurus apartment of Gertrude Stein Their meeting symbolized the passing of one generation of "writers in Paris" and the birth of another. This book starts with that meeting and ends with Wright's death - possibly suspicious - 14 years later. The intervening years yield a multitude of strange tales: the Coca-Cola War; the emergence of the shadowy Boris Vian; the resurrection of Samuel Beckett by a small Left Bank magazine edited by Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi; the real "Story of O"; what happened when the Beat Generation came to Paris. Above all, this book celebrates the prevailing spirit of freedom in those years, and the art it fostered.

About this title

Review:

'James Campbell combines the understanding of a good social historian with an ability to analyse literary achievement in a narrative that has the same sort of interest as a novel' Guardian 'When on August 25, 1944 the Allied forces marched into Paris and freed the city from Nazi occupation, they prepared the way for another invasion - a new wave of writers...Taking Richard Wright's arrival in Paris as his starting point, James Campbell has produced a riveting account of this post-war period in Paris Interzone' Time Out

From the Publisher:

'A remarkable book' Guardian
‘James Campbell combines the understanding of a good social historian with an ability to analyse literary achievement in a narrative that has the same sort of interest as a novel’ Guardian

‘When on August 25, 1944 the Allied forces marched into Paris and freed the city from Nazi occupation, they prepared the way for another invasion – a new wave of writers...Taking Richard Wright’s arrival in Paris as his starting point, James Campbell has produced a riveting account of this post-war period in Paris Interzone’ Time Out

‘James Campbell’s striking book on the Paris literary scene from the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s develops an approach rarely adopted by the many authors who have produced studies of the period...permitting him – better than anyone else, to my knowledge – to bring together writers who are almost always considered independently’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Informative and exhilarating’ New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Minerva
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0749398698
• ISBN 13: 9780749398699
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320