A Writer Prepares

By: Lawrence Block

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Sometime in 1953, I knew with unusual certainty what I intended to do with my life. I would become a writer.

By the time I was 25, I had published more than 50 books. Most of these bore pen names, and for a time I resisted acknowledging my early pseudonymous work. Then, in one astonishing and feverish week in 1994, I recalled those early years in 50,000 words of memoir.

A publisher contracted to bring out my memoir once I'd completed it. Instead I put it on a shelf and never looked at it again. Early in 2020, I had a fresh look at A Writer Prepares. By the time I was ready to stop, I'd written about my life as a writer well into 1966, when I'd completed The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep.

A Writer Prepares, an examination of the first quarter century of one writer's life, is arguably the work of two writers. There's the middle-aged fellow who wrote about half of it at a blistering pace in 1994, and there's the octogenarian who finished the job another quarter century later. The older fellow brought less raw energy to the task, and his memory is a long way from infallible, but one can only hope he's offset these losses with a slight edge in judgment, in perspective, in maturity.

©2021 Lawrence Block (P)2021 Tantor

Terrific memoir by Lawrence Block

This is a terrific and fun memoir of Lawrence Block's early development as a writer. It goes back to his days at Antioch college, the hilarious misadventures of Scott Meredith Literary Agency, and the tales of his early soft-core books and crime stories. The only thing that would make it better is if Larry narrated it himself. Great for writers and fans of Block's books.