As he magnificently combines meticulous scholarship withirresistible narrative appeal, Richardson draws on his closefriendship with Picasso, his own diaries, the collaboration ofPicasso's widow Jacqueline, and unprecedented access to Picasso'sstudio and papers to arrive at a profound understanding of theartist and his work. 800 photos.
One of the most popular and mysterious figures in Americanliterary history, J. D. Salinger eluded fans and journalists formost of his life. Now comes a new biography that Peter Ackroyd inThe Times of London calls “energetic and magnificentlyresearched”—a book from which “a true picture of Salinger emerges.”Filled with new information and revelations—garnered from countlessinterviews, letters, and public records—J. D. Salinger presents anextraordinary life that spanned nearly the entire twentiethcentury. Kenneth Slawenski explores Salinger’s privileged youth, longobscured by misrepresentation and rumor, revealing the brilliant,sarcastic, vulnerable son of a disapproving father and dotingmother and his entrance into a social world where Gloria Vanderbiltdismissively referred to him as “a Jewish boy from New York.” Heretoo are accounts of Salinger’s first broken heart—Eugene O’Neill’sdaughter, Oona, left him for the much older Charlie Chaplin—and thedevastating World W