"At its highest pitch", John Updike writes in his Introduction to Surviving, "Green's writing brings the rectangle of printed page alive like little else in English fiction in this century - a superbly rendered surface above a trembling depth, alive not only with the reflections of reality but with the consolations of art". But though fellow writers from W. H. Auden to Eudora Welty have lionized his brilliant, original, often hugely funny novels, Henry Green's work remains one of the great literary secrets of our time. Surviving, which gathers together a selection of Green's writings, is therefore a literary event of considerable importance and a cause for celebration. Featuring a number of remarkable stories from the 1920s and 1930s never previously published, this volume also offers a highly entertaining account of Green's service in the London Fire Brigade during the Blitz; a short, unpublished play, "Journey Out of Spain"; a selection of Green's journalism, including a group of revealing articles on the craft of writing, a marvelous evocation of Venice, a description of falling in love, and reviews that illuminate his literary enthusiasms; and a hilarious interview by Terry Southern for the Paris Review. Edited by the novelist Matthew Yorke, Henry Green's grandson, Surviving includes an Introduction by John Updike. Green's son, Sebastian Yorke, has written a biographical memoir which forms an afterword to the book, providing an unforgettable portrait of this unjustly neglected writer of genius.
Biografie (John Updike)
John Updike, geboren 1932 in Shillington/Pennsylvania; Kindheit in materieller Bedrücktheit; 1950 Stipendium zum Studium am Harvard College, Hauptfach Anglistik; Abschluss des Untergraduiertenstudiums 1954 mit summa cum laude. 1953 Heirat mit der Kunststudentin Mary Entwistle Pennington, mit ihr zusammen - nach dem Studium - ein Jahr an die Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford/England. Rückkehr in die USA. 1955 - 57 fest angestellt beim Magazin 'The New Yorker', danach freier Mitarbeiter mit Veröffentlichung von Kurzgeschichten sowie einflussreicher literarischer Kritiken. 1957 Umzug nach Ipswich im neuenglischen Massachusetts. 1964 Vortragsreisen durch die UdSSR, Rumänien, Bulgarien und Tschechien. Seit 1964 Mitglied des National Institute of Arts and Letters. 1973 Fulbright-Lektor in Afrika. 1976 Mitglied der American Academy of Arts and Letters. Auszeichnungen: 1983 Lincoln Literary Award und Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist Award, 1988 St. Louis Literary Award, 1989 National Medal of Arts, 1991 Premio Scanno, 1993 Common Wealth Award und Conch Republic Prize for Literature, 1995 Commandeur de l'ordre des arts et des lettres und The Howells Medal from the Adademy of Arts and Letters. John Updike verstarb 2009.