Penguin Books Winter 2013 - Bookseller Services - Penguin Group

ISbN 978-0-14-312290-6 $18.00 ($19.00 CAN)
Literary Criticism/Cultural Studies 5 1 /2 x 8 7 /16 400 pp.
Rights: E00 Pub history: Viking hc 978-0-670-02308-0
On sale: 2/26/2013
SuggeSTeD ORDeR
“ This greatest hits package doubles—and
triples and scores—as a history of
global culture and American
literature.” —Troy Patterson,
The Slate Book Review
“ There was more than a touch of the poet
in John Leonard, alongside the cheerful
investigator. . . . Let’s be grateful for
this eloquent sample of his
writings.”—Phillip Lopate,
The New York Times Book Review
“ A brilliant collection of writings on
politics, social and cultural engagement,
and literary life.” —David L. Ulin,
Los Angeles Times
Reading for My Life
Writings, 1958–2008
John Leonard
Introduction by E. L. Doctorow
John Leonard was a lion of American letters. A passionate, erudite,
and wide-ranging critic, he helped shape the landscape of modern
literature. Reading for My Life is a monumental collection of
Leonard’s most significant writings—spanning five decades—from
his earliest columns for the Harvard Crimson to his final essays for
the New York Review of Books. Definitive reviews of Doris Lessing,
Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, Vladimir Nabokov,
and Philip Roth, among others, display Leonard’s encyclopedic
knowledge of literature and make this book a landmark achievement
from one of America’s most beloved and influential critics.
n Introduction by E. L. Doctorow
n In 2006 John Leonard won the NBCC’s Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement
Award
n Includes remembrances of Leonard from Toni Morrison, Gloria Steinem,
and other friends, family, and colleagues
John leonARd (1939–2008) was a reviewer or contributing
editor for practically every national print outlet, including the Nation, the
New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, Vanity Fair, Salon, and
New York Magazine, and a daily book reviewer for the New York Times.
He also appeared regularly on NPR’s Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning.
Leonard wrote four novels and served for four years as the executive editor
of the New York Times Book Review.
e. l. doCtoRow holds the Lewis and Loretta Glucksman chair in
English and American Letters at New York University. His novels include
Ragtime, which received the first National Book Critics Circle Award for
fiction in 1976, The Book of Daniel, City of God, and The March.
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