On Becoming a Novelist
John Gardner
(Author)
Description
On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. For a certain kind of person, Gardner writes, nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist. But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession. A miraculously detailed account of the creative process.--Anne Tyler, Baltimore Sun
Product Details
Price
$15.00
$13.95
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date
October 17, 1999
Pages
150
Dimensions
5.6 X 0.45 X 8.26 inches | 0.37 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780393320039
BISAC Categories:
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
John Gardner (1933-1982) was one of the most provocative American novelists of his generation, garnering critical praise and a popular following for his fiction, including October Light, The Sunlight Dialogues, Grendel, and Mickelson's Ghost, as well as his criticism, the groundbreaking Moral Fiction, and his controversial The Art of Fiction, which has become a standard text in university writing classes around the country.