num_pages: 485
description: Like a Fiery Elephant tells the story of B.S. Johnson, one of Britain's most productive, passionate, and controversial writers of the 1960s and 70s. Johnson was an unflinching advocate for the avant-garde in both literature and film, and he held some strong (some would say extreme) views on the future of the novel. Working firmly in the tradition of Sterne, Joyce, and Beckett, he was determined to reinvent the novel with each attempt. His innovations included a book with holes cut through the pages (Albert Angelo) and - most famously - a novel published in a box so that its unbound chapters could be shuffled and read in any order (The Unfortunates)." The story of Johnson's life is fascinating enough - involving, as it does, parental abandonment during World War II, encounters with a mysterious poetic goddess in Wales, brushes with the British Secret Service, and a trail of exasperated editors, publishers, and agents, all of whom were unable to match Johnson's boundless energy and recklessly high standards.
language: English
title: Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
titlecomplete: Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
genres: Biography, British Literature, Comedy, Nonfiction, Literature, Criticism
ratings_count: 309
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: James Tait Black Memorial Prize
category: Biography, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Biography, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group