Salt of the earth

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Michael Posner

"Novelist, essayist, satirist, and iconoclast, Mordecai Richler was one of Canada's most skilled and popular writers. Controversial too. His early novels outraged some in Montreal's Jewish community and his later non-fiction work outraged some Quebec nationalists. But from the beginning, his tremendous talent was indisputable and such literary triumphs as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and, later, Barney's Version cemented his reputation as a brilliant, gutsy writer both in Canada and internationally. His death in July 2001 prompted tributes from around the world that acknowledged his humour, intellect, and irrepressible curmudgeonliness." "In The Last Honest Man Michael Posner has deftly woven hundreds of personal, intimate memories of Richler into a rich biography of the writer's life. Through the words of his family and friends, colleagues and rivals, editors, writers, filmmakers, drinking pals, and others, a complex picture of the writer emerges, one that captures him in all his guises: the grumpy and the high-spirited man, the observer and the engaged, the generous and the distanced, the enthusiastic and the sardonic, the man as consummately at ease in the Ritz Hotel as in his favourite Montreal watering hole, Winnie's, but awkward in crowded social situations." "Drawing on 150 interviews conducted in London, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles - and on richler's own letters and writings - Michael Posner has composed an unconventional biography, one that delivers a wonderful and highly textured portrait of this multifaceted artist. Book jacket."--Jacket.

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Scott Saul

"Brings the man and his comic genius into focus as never before. Drawing upon a mountain of original research--interviews with family and friends, court transcripts, unpublished journals, screenplay drafts--Scott Saul traces Pryor's rough journey to the heights of fame: from his heartbreaking childhood, his trials in the Army, and his apprentice days in Greenwich Village to his soul-searching interlude in Berkeley and his ascent in the New Hollywood of the 1970s"--Amazon.com.

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Edward Jablonski

During his lifetime, Alan Jay Lerner received every imaginable award in American musical theater, and rightly so: As the lyricist of such astonishing Broadway successes as Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Gigi, and Camelot, he was one of its architects. He was also one of its last greats, never quite able to regain his footing once the face of Broadway changed for good in the 1960s. Here, noted scholar of musical theater Edward Jablonski tells the story of Lerner's career and of his personal life, filling in the cracks purposely left open in Lerner's own autobiography. A well-off child of the Depression, Lerner was born in New York City, the son of the founder and president of Lerner Stores. Following an education in England and at Harvard, he ended up in New York, where he wrote advertising copy, radio scripts, and spring gambols for the Lambs Club. While lunching at the Lambs one day, he was approached by composer Frederick Loewe, who asked Lerner if he would like to work with him - and thus began a celebrated collaboration. Lerner also worked with a roll call of Broadway's and Hollywood's best, with varying degrees of success: Fred Astaire and Jane Powell (Royal Wedding), Kurt Weill (Love Life), Burton Lane (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Leonard Bernstein (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue), and, of course, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews (My Fair Lady). He experienced the vertiginous highs of being at Broadway's pinnacle: My Fair Lady ran for 2,717 performances in New York, establishing Lerner's reputation as a master of urbane, highly literate songwriting. But when his money ran out - as did the Broadway for which he had been born - his life soured, and, by all accounts, it was something he himself failed to realize. Compelled to keep working by a nervous drive and a stubborn perfectionism, Lerner in later years wrote lyrics for some famously troubled productions. His personal life became just as tangled: All eight of his marriages ended in acrimonious and well-publicized dissolutions, and he was an anxiety-ridden spendthrift to the end.

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Jeanette Winterson

Memories of the author about her difficult childhood as the adopted daughter of an English mother with strong religious convictions, and her subsequent search for her biological mother.