-
The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived
- A True Story of My Family
- Narrated by: Barry Press
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived
Buy for $18.05
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Ann Patchett
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,684
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,505
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,488
Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Entertaining, engrossing, and elucidative essays
- By Bonny on 01-07-14
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
-
Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
-
And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
Hemingway: The Paris Years
- By: Michael Reynolds
- Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
The 1920s in Paris are the pivotal years in Hemingway's apprenticeship as a writer, whether sitting in cafés or at the feet of Gertrude Stein. These are the heady times of the Nick Adams short stories, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and the writing of The Sun Also Rises. These are also the years of Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, the birth of his first son, and his discovery of the bullfights at Pamplona.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Slow down narrator, slow down.
- By Joan on 10-03-13
By: Michael Reynolds
-
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Ann Patchett
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,684
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,505
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,488
Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Entertaining, engrossing, and elucidative essays
- By Bonny on 01-07-14
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
-
Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
-
And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
Hemingway: The Paris Years
- By: Michael Reynolds
- Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
The 1920s in Paris are the pivotal years in Hemingway's apprenticeship as a writer, whether sitting in cafés or at the feet of Gertrude Stein. These are the heady times of the Nick Adams short stories, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and the writing of The Sun Also Rises. These are also the years of Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, the birth of his first son, and his discovery of the bullfights at Pamplona.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Slow down narrator, slow down.
- By Joan on 10-03-13
By: Michael Reynolds
-
Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell
- By: Anne Edwards
- Narrated by: Karen Commins
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Margaret Mitchell was as complex and compelling as her legendary heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, and her story is as dramatic as anything out of her own imagination. Indeed, it is the basis for the legend she created. Gone with the Wind took the American reading public by storm and went on to become one of the most popular books and motion pictures of all time. The book was a phenomenon whose success has never been equaled, but it shattered Margaret Mitchell's private life.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting - but far too padded with minutiae
- By Summer Layne on 12-13-17
By: Anne Edwards
-
Cast of Characters
- Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of the New Yorker
- By: Thomas Vinciguerra
- Narrated by: Tony Pasqualini
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 56
From its birth in 1925 to the early days of the Cold War, The New Yorker slowly but surely took hold as the country's most prestigious, entertaining, and informative general-interest periodical. In Cast of Characters, Thomas Vinciguerra paints a portrait of the magazine's cadre of charming, wisecracking, driven, troubled, and brilliant writers and editors. He introduces us to Wolcott Gibbs, theater critic, all-around wit, and author of an infamous 1936 parody of Time magazine.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
But...Where's Dorothy Parker
- By Constant Reader on 06-05-18
-
Life Itself
- A Memoir
- By: Roger Ebert
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 566
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 499
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 497
Roger Ebert is the best-known film critic of our time. He has been reviewing films for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and was the first film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. He has appeared on television for four decades, including twenty-three years as cohost of Siskel & Ebert at the Movies. In 2006, complications from thyroid cancer treatment resulted in the loss of his ability to eat, drink, or speak. But with the loss of his voice, Ebert has only become a more prolific and influential writer.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
mixed feelings
- By loix on 09-18-11
By: Roger Ebert
-
Shirley Jackson
- A Rather Haunted Life
- By: Ruth Franklin
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 19 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 258
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 226
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 226
Known to millions mainly as the author of the "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson has been curiously absent from the mainstream American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense and psychological horror, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America more deeply than anyone. Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An incredible writer; a courageous woman
- By Lesley on 10-08-16
By: Ruth Franklin
-
But Enough About You
- Essays
- By: Christopher Buckley
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 42
Christopher Buckley at his best: an extraordinary, wide-ranging selection of essays both hilarious and poignant, irreverent and delightful. In his first book of essays since his 1997 best seller, Wry Martinis, Buckley delivers a rare combination of big ideas and truly fun writing. Listening to these essays is the equivalent of being in the company of a tremendously witty and enlightening companion.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Generally interesting
- By Chief of Staff, ChowChow on 03-23-15
-
Mark Twain
- A Life
- By: Ron Powers
- Narrated by: Ron Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 120
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Buy the Book
- By W.Denis on 10-22-05
By: Ron Powers
-
Joy
- Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis
- By: Abigail Santamaria
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
Joy Davidman is known, if she is known at all, as the wife of C. S. Lewis. Their marriage was immortalized in the film Shadowlands and Lewis' memoir, A Grief Observed. Now, through extraordinary new documents as well as years of research and interviews, Abigail Santamaria brings Joy Davidman Gresham Lewis to your ears in the fullness and depth she deserves. A poet and radical, Davidman was a frequent contributor to the communist vehicle New Masses and an active member of New York literary circles in the 1930s and '40s.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A tough life for a tough woman
- By MVP on 06-25-16
-
Outlaw Journalist
- The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson
- By: Professor William McKeen
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
Esteemed author and journalism professor William McKeen chronicles the mesmerizing life of legendary Gonzo journalist and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson’s childhood is detailed, along with his explosive relationship with his editors at Playboy and Rolling Stone, his drug use, his controversial persona, and life at his secluded Colorado home.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very enlightening and well written
- By D. Lichtenstein on 05-27-17
-
Logical Family
- A Memoir
- By: Armistead Maupin
- Narrated by: Armistead Maupin
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 201
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 200
In this long-awaited memoir, the beloved author of the best-selling Tales of the City series chronicles his odyssey from the old South to freewheeling San Francisco and his evolution from curious youth to groundbreaking writer and gay rights pioneer. Also included is an exclusive conversation between Maupin and best-selling author Neil Gaiman.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Ends Abruptly
- By Robert R. on 10-13-17
By: Armistead Maupin
-
Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin
- Writers Running Wild in the Twenties
- By: Marion Meade
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 284
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 203
This is an exuberant group portrait of four extraordinary writers, Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, and Edna Ferber, whose loves, lives, and literary endeavors captured the spirit of the 1920s.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating lives!
- By Diana on 02-19-05
By: Marion Meade
-
The Ambulance Drivers
- Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War
- By: James McGrath Morris
- Narrated by: Dean Temple
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
After meeting for the first time on the front lines of World War I, two aspiring writers forge an intense 20-year friendship and write some of America's greatest novels, giving voice to a "lost generation" shaken by war. Eager to find his way in life and words, John Dos Passos first witnessed the horror of trench warfare in France as a volunteer ambulance driver retrieving the dead and seriously wounded from the front line. Later in the war, he briefly met another young writer, Ernest Hemingway, who was just arriving for his service in the ambulance corps.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Morris always delivers interesting biographies...
- By NMwritergal on 04-08-17
-
Hold Still
- A Memoir with Photographs
- By: Sally Mann
- Narrated by: Sally Mann
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 370
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 324
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 325
In this groundbreaking audiobook, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant. But what's up with the PDF?
- By ARK on 06-27-15
By: Sally Mann
Publisher's summary
A veteran of the Washington Post and Miami Herald, Tom Shroder has made a career of investigative journalism and human-interest stories. His most fascinating reporting, however, comes from within his own family: Shroder's grandfather, MacKinlay Kantor, was the world-famous author of Andersonville, the seminal novel of the Civil War. As a child, Shroder was in awe of the larger-than-life character. Kantor's friends included Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandberg, Gregory Peck, and James Cagney. He wrote the novel Glory for Me, which became the multi-Oscar-winning film The Best Years of Our Lives. Kantor also suffered from alcoholism, an outsized ego, and an overbearing, abusive, and publicly embarrassing personality where his family was concerned; he blew through a small fortune in his lifetime, dying nearly destitute and alone. In The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived, Shroder revisits the past - Kantor's upbringing, his early life, and career trajectory - and writes not just the life story of one man, but a meditation on fame, family secrets, and legacies, and what is remembered after we are gone.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
-
Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
-
And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
Salinger
- By: David Shields, Shane Salerno
- Narrated by: Peter Friedman, January LaVoy, Robert Petkoff, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 121
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 119
Shields and Salerno illuminate most brightly the last 56 years of Salinger’s life: a period that, until now, had remained completely dark to biographers. Provided unprecedented access to diaries, letters, legal records, and secret documents, listeners will feel they have, for the first time, gotten beyond Salinger’s meticulously built-up wall. The result is the definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Ingenious novel or biography? Hard to tell....
- By Melinda on 09-05-13
By: David Shields, and others
-
Mark Twain
- A Life
- By: Ron Powers
- Narrated by: Ron Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 120
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Buy the Book
- By W.Denis on 10-22-05
By: Ron Powers
-
The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
-
Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
-
And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
Salinger
- By: David Shields, Shane Salerno
- Narrated by: Peter Friedman, January LaVoy, Robert Petkoff, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 121
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 119
Shields and Salerno illuminate most brightly the last 56 years of Salinger’s life: a period that, until now, had remained completely dark to biographers. Provided unprecedented access to diaries, letters, legal records, and secret documents, listeners will feel they have, for the first time, gotten beyond Salinger’s meticulously built-up wall. The result is the definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Ingenious novel or biography? Hard to tell....
- By Melinda on 09-05-13
By: David Shields, and others
-
Mark Twain
- A Life
- By: Ron Powers
- Narrated by: Ron Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 120
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Buy the Book
- By W.Denis on 10-22-05
By: Ron Powers
-
The Ambulance Drivers
- Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War
- By: James McGrath Morris
- Narrated by: Dean Temple
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
After meeting for the first time on the front lines of World War I, two aspiring writers forge an intense 20-year friendship and write some of America's greatest novels, giving voice to a "lost generation" shaken by war. Eager to find his way in life and words, John Dos Passos first witnessed the horror of trench warfare in France as a volunteer ambulance driver retrieving the dead and seriously wounded from the front line. Later in the war, he briefly met another young writer, Ernest Hemingway, who was just arriving for his service in the ambulance corps.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Morris always delivers interesting biographies...
- By NMwritergal on 04-08-17
-
The Voice is All
- The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac
- By: Joyce Johnson
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
In The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson - coauthor of the classic memoir Door Wide Open, about her relationship with Jack Kerouac - brilliantly peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities. Looking more deeply than previous biographers into how Kerouac's French Canadian background enriched his prose and gave him a unique outsider's vision of America, she tracks his development from boyhood through the phenomenal breakthroughs of 1951 that resulted in the composition of On the Road.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Kerouac's Voice
- By Robert L. Stofel on 09-26-12
By: Joyce Johnson
-
Daring
- My Passages - A Memoir
- By: Gail Sheehy
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Candid, insightful, and powerful, Daring: My Passages is the story of the unconventional life of a writer who dared - to walk New York City streets with hookers and pimps to expose violent prostitution; to march with civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland as British paratroopers opened fire; to seek out Egypt's president Anwar Sadat when he was targeted for death after making peace with Israel.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Enjoyed unexpectedly
- By Corinne O'Rourke on 09-06-23
By: Gail Sheehy
-
Empire of Self
- A Life of Gore Vidal
- By: Jay Parini
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
The product of 30 years of friendship and conversation, Jay Parini's Empire of Self probes behind the glittering surface of Gore Vidal's colorful life to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truth underlying his celebrity-strewn life. But there is plenty of glittering surface as well - a virtual who's who of the American Century, from Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart through the Kennedys, Princess Margaret, and the creme de la creme of Hollywood.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well done!
- By Christopher on 03-22-16
By: Jay Parini
-
Hemingway's Boat
- Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934 - 1961
- By: Paul Hendrickson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 119
An award-winning historian and author, Paul Hendrickson here turns his attention to one of America’s most cherished literary icons, Ernest Hemingway. Drawing on previously unpublished material, Hendrickson focuses on Hemingway’s life in its twilight, just prior to his suicide, and the seemingly singular constant in the man’s life: his boat, Pilar. On this vessel, Hemingway would entertain and travel, but it would also be the scene of some of his greatest tragedies.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Hemingway biography for the 21st Century
- By George on 09-16-14
By: Paul Hendrickson
-
My Life with Bob
- Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues
- By: Pamela Paul
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Pamela Paul
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 62
Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for 28 years - carried throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk - reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has a name: Bob. Bob is Paul's Book of Books, a journal that records every book she's ever read.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An uncanny mirror and a celebration of book love
- By Cherilyn Parsons on 07-28-19
By: Pamela Paul
-
Jack London
- An American Life
- By: Earle Labor
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Jack London was born a working class, fatherless Californian in 1876. In his youth, he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling West Coast - an oyster pirate, a hobo, a sailor, and a prospector by turns. He spent his brief life rapidly accumulating the experiences that would inform his acclaimed best-selling books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Glad I chose this
- By SherryH on 04-14-19
By: Earle Labor
-
Flesh Wounds
- By: Richard Glover
- Narrated by: Richard Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
A mother who invented her past, a father who was often absent, a son who wondered if this could really be his family...Richard Glover's favourite dinner-party game is called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?' It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed toy collector.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Such a Meaningful Reflection
- By Awarenessing on 11-28-15
By: Richard Glover
-
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Ann Patchett
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,684
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,505
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,488
Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Entertaining, engrossing, and elucidative essays
- By Bonny on 01-07-14
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 117
Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
-
Rebel Souls
- Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians
- By: Justin Martin
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Rebel Souls is the first book ever written about the colorful group of artists - regulars at Pfaff's Saloon in Manhattan - rightly considered America's original Bohemians. Besides a young Whitman, the circle included actor Edwin Booth; trailblazing stand–up comic Artemus Ward; psychedelic drug pioneer and author Fitz Hugh Ludlow; and brazen performer Adah Menken, famous for her Naked Lady routine. Central to their times, the artists managed to forge connections with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, and even Abraham Lincoln.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Wonderful Read with Vibrant Characters
- By A on 11-11-15
By: Justin Martin
-
The Possessed
- Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
- By: Elif Batuman
- Narrated by: Elif Batuman
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
In The Possessed we watch Elif Batuman investigate a possible murder at Tolstoy's ancestral estate. We go with her to Stanford, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg; retrace Pushkin's wanderings in the Caucasus; learn why Old Uzbek has 100 different words for crying; and see an 18th-century ice palace reconstructed on the Neva. Love and the novel, the individual in history, the existential plight of the graduate student: all find their places in The Possessed.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Dear Russian Literary Diary...
- By Darwin8u on 08-29-17
By: Elif Batuman