tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post915427904956563612..comments2024-02-25T09:45:48.931-05:00Comments on Lally's Alley: FAVORITE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES LISTLallyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310472614196384595noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-28278541037849921732009-03-08T15:01:00.000-04:002009-03-08T15:01:00.000-04:00I was going to include the Orwell books too, but t...I was going to include the Orwell books too, but thought perhaps they'd be regarded more as political tracts than bios. <BR/><BR/>Then there's Boswell's own memoirs, which go to I think 8 or 9 volumes. And Pepys!Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-75649738981332313542009-03-08T10:52:00.000-04:002009-03-08T10:52:00.000-04:00Lal--Here are some additions, most of which could ...Lal--Here are some additions, most of which could be classified either as memoirs or autobiography:<BR/>Peter Kropotkin's Memoirs Of A Revolutionist; George Orwell's Homage To Catalonia and The Road To Wigan Pier; Maxim Gorky's My Universities; and Giacomo Casanova's History Of My Life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-33967150754082694792009-03-07T23:17:00.000-05:002009-03-07T23:17:00.000-05:00I remember, more than 25 years ago, holding Joe Br...I remember, more than 25 years ago, holding Joe Brainard's "I Remember" book in my hands and the deciding not to buy it (to economize).-K-https://www.blogger.com/profile/03289562368002376807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-65900795947914383542009-03-07T22:13:00.000-05:002009-03-07T22:13:00.000-05:00Can't believe I left off ANGELA'S ASHES, but maybe...Can't believe I left off ANGELA'S ASHES, but maybe I'll include it in the autobiographical novels list, or nonfiction novels or whatever we call novels that are thinly disguised autobios, or autobios that are a little more like novels, ala ANGELA'S ASHES. (and thanks for the kind words for my endless memoir project), plus I can't wait to see Ted Greenwald's and wish I'd seen Doug Lang's).Lallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05310472614196384595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-51347573509133827642009-03-07T19:46:00.000-05:002009-03-07T19:46:00.000-05:00Dear M:I second your nominations, esp. of South Or...Dear M:<BR/><BR/>I second your nominations, esp. of South Orange Sonnets, George O'B, Last Night's Fun, Green Suede Shoes, and Saroyan's The Street. I have to add a few more suggestions: your own Poor Moth Boy, which I realize does not yet have a wide readership, but which I think is a major American memoir. Ted Greenwald's also not-yet-published autobiography Clearview Lie is a terrific piece of writing---a memoir in verse. Doug Lang's far too abridged account of his (mostly) early life, The Family Picnic Down by the Riverside (originally in an exhibition at the Corcoran, accompanied with photos by Sandra Rottman), is brilliant & riveting. Frank Conroy's Stop-Time. Robert Graves's Good-Bye to All That. Geoffrey Wolff's The Duke of Deception. Ed White's A Boy's Own Story. And (I don't care what anyone says) Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. <BR/>---TPWAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-19612651424904244352009-03-06T19:34:00.000-05:002009-03-06T19:34:00.000-05:00Yeah, I agree about MOVEABLE FEAST, I always hated...Yeah, I agree about MOVEABLE FEAST, I always hated Hemingway's macho posturing and angry slights at all kinds of people and groups of people. Like the way he treated Fitzgerald and Ford Madox Ford in this memoir, as well as others. And yet, something about the writing of it and the obviousness of his insecurities and ego blustering makes it one of his most accessible books, as well as one of his most honest, in the sense that his prejudices and spitefulness and all that are on full display, as well as his commitment to writing great sentences, at least according to the standards he was so successful at propagating.Lallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05310472614196384595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-23880038843781952562009-03-06T17:30:00.000-05:002009-03-06T17:30:00.000-05:00Great list, Michael -- a bunch of books I love, an...Great list, Michael -- a bunch of books I love, and a bunch of books with which I am not familiar (or, with which I am am on;y vaguely familiar.)<BR/><BR/>I agree with Curtis about the Hemingway memoir -- and I do admire Hemingway very much. What stuck with me most in the rancor department was his depiction of Wyndham Lewis as having "the eyes of an unsuccessful rapist." Way to go Ernest -- you like successful rapists better?<BR/><BR/>Sorry about the deletion -- too many typos and I hit publish instead of preview,douglanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00045305196252862765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-43630157888016117722009-03-06T17:25:00.000-05:002009-03-06T17:25:00.000-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.douglanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00045305196252862765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-36712096060123633052009-03-06T14:59:00.000-05:002009-03-06T14:59:00.000-05:00Capote did a number of nice pieces too. A House o...Capote did a number of nice pieces too. A House on the Heights. The Local Color Pieces, some of the essays in Music for Chameleons. Edmund Wilson's Literary Chronicles. James Merrill's book about his youth in Europe. Gore Vidal's Memoirs--a gas! Many of John McPhee's books are fleshed out travel and research accounts, which suppress the "I" narrative but are filled with anecdote. Edward Hoagland too. And Calvin Trillin. S.N. Behrman's Portrait of Max is like a long elaborated interview of Beerbohm.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-71464749203374096432009-03-06T14:52:00.000-05:002009-03-06T14:52:00.000-05:00Most of the last half of Saroyan's writing career ...Most of the last half of Saroyan's writing career was devoted to autobiographical excursions. There had always been a strong biographical strain, even in his earliest books, but as time went on, he became increasingly the subject of his own art. Peter Howard once hauled out a secret stash of Saroyan's earliest stories from the early Thirties, all written in those little blue test notebooks we used to take tests in when I went to college. Those stories, written in his careful longhand script, were fascinating early examples of the kind of pieces that would eventually become The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze. <BR/><BR/>Hemingway's Feast is a very peculiar book. Pot-shots and grim get-even pieces. You'd have thought he was famous and distinguished enough to be free of the sort of rancor and bitterness they exhibit, but apparently not. Poor Ford and Stein and Fitzgerald! <BR/><BR/>Miller's another free-wheeling personal anecdote storyteller. Nearly all his books--those which aren't frankly fairy-tales--are personal experiences, embellished for aesthetic effect. <BR/><BR/>I very much enjoyed Isherwood's memoirs. Christopher's Kind, the diaries. And at least four of his novels are thinly disguised non-fictions. <BR/><BR/>Williams's Autobiography seemed very quaint and phony, somehow. I never had the feeling that Williams was ever being truthful--a true poet, in every sense of the word, almost to the extent of not being able to tell--or even perceive--anything completely straight. Ditto with Stein--not a true word in anything she ever wrote.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-23941345864111607692009-03-06T14:51:00.000-05:002009-03-06T14:51:00.000-05:00-K- I left off a few I think you do know, like Cur...-K- I left off a few I think you do know, like Curtis' sggestion (I can't believe I forgot it) I REMEMBER! I'll stick a few more in in brackets as I usually do addendums.Lallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05310472614196384595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-37858965897978972522009-03-06T14:41:00.000-05:002009-03-06T14:41:00.000-05:00I don't know that it qualifies, but I'd nominate B...I don't know that it qualifies, but I'd nominate Brainard's I Remember. It's an autobiography in every sense except style and name. You learn as much or more about Brainard's true character, by reading these discrete memories, than you would from any prosaic recounting.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567168789336947243.post-18221350244991232312009-03-06T11:10:00.000-05:002009-03-06T11:10:00.000-05:00Wow - unlike all your other lists, I haven't read ...Wow - unlike all your other lists, I haven't read and in most cases am not even familiar with, any of these titles.-K-https://www.blogger.com/profile/03289562368002376807noreply@blogger.com