Frank Norris : A Life

by McElrath, Joseph R.; Crisler, Jesse S.

• ISBN13: 9780252030161
• ISBN10: 0252030168
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-10
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

Born in Chicago in 1870, Frank Norris led a life of adventure and art. He moved to San Francisco at fifteen, spent two years in Paris painting, returned to San Francisco to become an internationally famous author, and died at age thirty-two from a ruptured appendix. During his short life, he wrote an inspired series of novels about the United States coming of age, includingThe Octopus, The Pit,andMcTeague.Until recently, various obstacles prevented a comprehensive biography of Norris: the writer burned most of his correspondence, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire devoured more, and his brother and widow dispersed his surviving papers as gifts. Joseph R. McElrath Jr. and Jesse S. Crisler spent over thirty years amassing the material necessary for this truly full-scale portrait of Norris.

Author Biography

Joseph R. McElrath Jr. is the William Hudson Rogers Professor of English at Florida State University.  He is the author of Frank Norris Revisited and Frank Norris: A Descriptive Bibliography. Jesse S. Crisler is a professor of English at Brigham Young University.  He is the editor of Frank Norris: Collected Letters, and coeditor of Frank Norris: A Reference Guide.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xvii
Chronology	xix
1. Frank Norris's Place in American Cultural History	1	(28)
2. Antecedents	29	(16)
3. The Chicago Years	45	(20)
4. The City by the Bay	65	(11)
5. From Out of the Blue	76	(8)
6. The Academie Julian	84	(22)
7. Starting Over	106	(26)
8. The Short-Story Writer in the Making at Berkeley	132	(21)
9. The Nascent Zolaist at Harvard College	153	(17)
10. Adventuring upon Life	170	(18)
11. The Jameson Raid	188	(11)
12. The Wave Journalist	199	(19)
13. Writing Prose Fiction for The Wave	218	(22)
14. The Novelist at Last at Work	240	(15)
15. New York City at Last	255	(9)
16. The Rocking-Chair War	264	(21)
17. With Norris at El Caney	285	(12)
18. From El Caney to San Juan Heights to Santiago	297	(20)
19. A Quickening Pace	317	(19)
20. "The Wheat Stuff Is Piling Up B.I.G."	336	(21)
21. Professional Advances and Personal Commitments	357	(22)
22. The Enfant Terrible No More	379	(14)
23. "Whoso Diggeth a Pit Shall Fall Therein"	393	(20)
24. Farewell to Gotham	413	(13)
25. Crepuscule	426	(7)
Notes	433	(38)
Index	471