Wakeful anguish
Subtitle: a literary biography of William Humphrey
By: Ashby Bland Crowder.
Series: Southern literary studies
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Baton Rouge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 403
Subjects: Humphrey, William.; Authors, American -- Homes and haunts -- Texas -- Red River County.; Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography.; Texas -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.; Red River County (Tex.) -- In literature.; Red River County (Tex.) -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "In this deeply felt biography, Ashby Bland Crowder treats in near definitive fashion one of southern literature's unjustly neglected masters. In superb novels such as Home from the Hill, The Ordways, and Proud Flesh as well as in the brilliant story collections The Last Husband and A Time and a Place, William Humphrey (1924-1997) created an imaginary East Texas Red River County, conjuring the speech and life rhythms of his native territory with artistic genius."

"Crowder's lyrical blending of biographical fact and incisive analysis corrects a mistaken view that Humphrey was among those writers mired in the pious cult of southern delusional remembrance. From early short fiction set in a New York commuter village through late works of the Northeast, such as Hostages to Fortune and September Song, Humphrey allowed himself a psychic distance from the South that fueled an unsparing critique of its myths - exemplified by the fierce deconstruction of Texas heroes found in his last novel, No Resting Place."

"Wakeful Anguish is among the first books about William Humphrey and will be greeted as one of the finest. Marshaling unpublished archival letters, interviews with persons who knew Humphrey at different stages in his life, and private correspondence and conversations between Humphrey and himself, Crowder achieves something rare in literary biography: a portrait that reveals both the sustained suffering in an author's life and work and his exultation in the triumph of his art."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [373]-384) and index.