In Search of Willie Morris : Teh Mercurial Life of a Legendary Writer and Editor

by King, Larry L.

• ISBN13: 9781586484309
• ISBN10: 1586484303
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-02
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Willie Morris, the famously talentedand complexwriter and editor, helped to remake American journalism and wrote more than a dozen books, with several classics among them. His time at the head of Harper's magazine, where he was made editor at age thirty-two, is legendary. With writers like David Halberstam, Norman Mailer, and author of this book, Larry L. King, Harper's became the magazine to read and the place to be in print.Morris was friend, colleague, or mentor to a remarkable cast of writers William Styron, James Jones, Truman Capote, George Plimpton, Gay Talese, and later in life, Barry Hannah, Donna Tartt, John Grisham, and Winston Groom. In Search of Willie Morris is a wise, sometimes raucous, and moving look at Morris that conveys the energy and activity of the years at the top and the troubles, talents, late rallies, and mysteries of his later life. Written with the affection of a close friend and the critical insight of a fellow writer, it is an absorbing biography of an extraordinarily gifted literary man and raconteur who inspired both wonder and frustration, and who left behind a legacy and a body of work that endures.

Author Biography

Native Texan Larry L. King is a novelist, journalist, and playwright. He is the only writer to be a finalist for a unique "Triple Crown" of American letters: a National Book Award, a Broadway Tony, and a television Emmy. The author of fourteen books, King has been a contributing editor at Harper's, New Times, Audience, Parade, The Texas Observer, and Texas Monthly. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife-lawyer-agent, Barbara S. Blaine.

Table of Contents

Words of Thanks	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xvii
A Big Duck in a Small Pond Prepares for Deeper Waters
	p. 3
	p. 15
	p. 31
Upward and Onward in the Real World
	p. 49
	p. 59
	p. 66
	p. 79
Riding High: The Toast of New York
	p. 95
	p. 116
Troubles in Paradise
	p. 135
	p. 150
Hardscrabble Times, Troubles Writing, and Fickle Hearts
	p. 173
	p. 188
	p. 201
Losing a Good Friend and a Mother-and Hearing, at Last, the Siren Call of Home
	p. 217
	p. 234
	p. 244
Dead Dogs and Melancholy Madness: at Odds with Uncle Sam, Local Cops, and a Few Old Pals
	p. 259
	p. 271
Recovery: Finding a Good Woman and Jump-Starting a Stalled Career
	p. 287
	p. 299
Adios, Amigo
	p. 313
Afterword	p. 321
Bibliography	p. 329
Index	p. 333
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