First published 1997
Carol Edgarian gathers intimate confessions from literary giants across twenty-three countries and four hundred years. Charlotte Bronte declares she must write because she cannot help herself. John Cheever dreams of his face on postage stamps. Delmore Schwartz observes that passion knows no boundaries. George Sand compares journal writing to drinking an ocean drop by drop rather than swimming across it. The collection moves through life stages, from youthful fervor to aged wisdom. Writers including Paul Auster, William S. Burroughs, Anne Frank, Franz Kafka, Herman Melville, Sylvia Plath, Leo Tolstoy, and Oscar Wilde reveal their struggles with ambition, fame, sexuality, envy, gossip, money, and mortality. Their previously unpublished words expose the raw humanity behind great literature. Edgarian arranges these voices chronologically to show how creative spirits grapple with both artistic challenges and universal human experiences.
Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, raw-humanity
Period: 400 Years, 23 Countries
304 pages · Paperback · Vintage