About this item
A witty, provocative look inside the tumultuous marriages of five famous writers, illuminating the creative process as well as the role of money, fame, and power in these complex and fascinating relationships.. "With an ego the size of a small nation, the literary lion is powerful on the page, but a helpless kitten in daily life - dependent on his wife to fold an umbrella, answer the phone, or lick a stamp.". The history of wives is largely one of silence, resilience, and forbearance. Toss in celebrity, male privilege, ruthless ambition, narcissism, misogyny, infidelity, alcoholism, and a mood disorder or two, and it's easy to understand why the marriages of so many famous writers have been stormy, short-lived, and mutually destructive. "It's been my experience," as the critic and novelist Elizabeth Hardwick once wrote, "that nobody holds a man's brutality to his wife against him.
About the Author
Carmela Ciuraru is the author of NOM DE PLUME: A (SECRET) HISTORY OF PSEUDONYMS, forthcoming in hardcover from HarperCollins.
She has edited several anthologies for Alfred A. Knopf/Everyman's Library and for Scribner, including Solitude Poems, Motherhood Poems, Beat Poets, and First Loves. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, PEN American Center, and the Authors Guild, and has written for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The New York Observer, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, O, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, Interview, Spin, Bookforum, and Tablet, and she writes a culture blog for ReadyMade.
You can visit her website at www.carmelaciuraru.com
[AUTHOR PHOTO CREDIT: Pieter M. van Hattem]
