Reading for My Life : Writings, 1958-2008

by Leonard, John; Doctorow, E. L.

• ISBN13: 9780143122906
• ISBN10: 0143122908
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-02-26
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

John Leonard was a lion of American letters. A passionate, erudite, and wide-ranging critic, he helped shape the landscape of modern literature. Reading for My Lifeis a monumental collection of Leonard's most significant writings-spanning five decades-from his earliest columns for the Harvard Crimsonto his final essays for the New York Review of Books. Definitive reviews of Doris Lessing, Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, Vladimir Nabokov, and Philip Roth, among others, display Leonard's encyclopedic knowledge of literature and make this book a landmark achievement from one of America's most beloved and influential critics.

Author Biography

John Leonard (1939–2008) was a reviewer or contributing editor for practically every national print outlet, including the Nation, the New York Review of Books, Harper's Magazine, Vanity Fair, Salon, and New York Magazine, and a daily book reviewer for the New York Times. He also appeared regularly on NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. Leonard wrote four novels and served for four years as the executive editor of the New York Times Book Review.

 

E. L. Doctorow holds the Lewis and Loretta Glucksman chair in English and American Letters at New York University. His novels include Ragtime, which received the first National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1976, The Book of Daniel, City of God, and The March.