Getting personal : selected writings / Phillip Lopate.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lopate, Phillip, 1943-

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Essays.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xii, 399 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, [2003]

Summary:

From the man whose name is virtually synonymous with the contemporary personal essay, Getting Personal is a rich and ambitious collection that spans Phillip Lopate's career as an essayist, teacher, film critic, father, son and husband. Lauded as one of America's foremost essayists, a writer who was instrumental in focussing attention on the form, Lopate here admirably demonstrates the obligation to be engaging as well as honest. Witty, insightful, deeply meditative and self-revelatory, with his characteristic candor and curmudgeonly charm, he explores himself, his life, his family, his religion, and his friends. Organized in six parts and spanning childhood to middle age, these twenty-eight essays tell two stories: the story of Lopate's life and the development of his career as a writer. On subjects as disparate as My Drawer, in which Lopate catalogues the bizarre contents of his bureau drawer to learn what they reveal about his life, to The Dead Father, a haunting portrait of his ex-colleague Donald Barthelme; from his famously funny and cranky Against Joie de Vivre, his lament against our relentless, driven and determined pursuit of happiness, to the poignant and deeply moving memoir, Willy, a remembrance of his mother's struggle to choose between his father and her lover, these essays celebrate the impressive range of his talent. Whether Lopate is examining the perils of living above your landlord, the glorious sweep of the Hudson from the George Washington Bridge, the difficulty of teaching gloomy Chekhov to children, or the lamentable collection of parts that comprise the portrait of his body, he is always thoughtful, wonderfully skeptical, and eloquently engaging. Getting Personal stands not only as a guide to Lopate's writing career, but also as an intellectual autobiography, rooted in his experience as one of America's most beloved and respected writers. The editor of the bestsellers The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, Writing New York: A Literary Anthology and The Anchor Essay series, Lopate is known for his exquisite taste in other's essays and a probing revelatory style of his own.

Contents:

Childhood

Youth

Early Marriage and Bachelorhood

Teaching and Work

Politics, Religion, Movies, Books, Cities

The Style of Middle Age.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0465041736

9780465041732

0465041744

9780465041749

OCLC:

52514308

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description