Vincent Sheean (1899–1975)
Autore di Thomas Jefferson: Father of Democracy
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: Carl Van Vechten
Opere di Vincent Sheean
In Search of History 3 copie
A Certain Rich Man 2 copie
The Pieces of a Fan 2 copie
The Tide 1 copia
Not Peace but A Sword 1 copia
Opere correlate
5 World Biographies: Michelangelo, Gandhi, Marie Curie, Napoleon, Julius Caesar — Collaboratore — 2 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Sheean, James Vincent
- Data di nascita
- 1899-12-05
- Data di morte
- 1975-03-16
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- Pana, Illinois, USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Illinois, USA
New York, New York, USA
Paris, France
Bronxville, New York, USA
Arolo, Italy - Attività lavorative
- journalist
novelist - Relazioni
- Forbes-Robertson, Diana (wife)
Millay, Edna St. Vincent (friend)
Hemingway, Ernest (drinking companion) - Premi e riconoscimenti
- American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1941
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 28
- Opere correlate
- 13
- Utenti
- 738
- Popolarità
- #34,415
- Voto
- 3.9
- Recensioni
- 5
- ISBN
- 32
- Lingue
- 3
- Preferito da
- 1
On July 9, 1927, a young newspaper correspondent in Berlin, newly divorced, was introduced to famed novelist Sinclair Lewis, himself recently divorced. She invited him to the birthday party she was giving herself that evening. He came, and before the evening was out, he had asked her to marry him.
At the time, Lewis was 42, author of four celebrated novels, a restless and provocative man. To friends and acquaintances, he was known as Red, thanks to the color of his hair, and perhaps also to his fiery complexion, which developed from youthful acne that "had grown steadily more acute and eventually marked his face like a battlefield." He was ugly, just physically unattractive; tall with long legs, a hatchet face, bad teeth, and, of course, that complexion. Nevertheless, he was, says the author, "wondrous good company, the most inventive and salacious of wits, a true refreshment in his irreverance for the accepted persons and ideas…"
Dorothy Thompson, turning 33 on that day, represented the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the New York Evening Post in Berlin. She was a highly regarded journalist, and would shortly gain notice for an interview with Adolf Hitler. Not long after it was published, the German government tossed her out; the interview story had not been well received.
Red courted Dorothy relentlessly. She succumbed; they married. They made a honeymoon tour of the English countryside by caravan—a kind of gypsy wagon towed (very slowly) by Red's open touring car. Then they went their separate ways. Dorothy pursued her journalistic career and soon was an advisor to diplomats and government leaders. She was in Europe, she was in Washington, but seldom was she with her husband. Red, for his part, couldn't ever settle anywhere. He didn't like sharing the limelight, even with his wife.
The author, Vincent Sheean, was a friend of both Dorothy and of Red, knowing them individually and as a couple. He lived with them from time to time, at the farm they owned in Vermont, a house they owned in New York. He connected with them in Europe from time to time. So this isn't simply a research project, though Sheean did a lot of that. He scoured the Thompson archive at Syracuse Univerity and the Lewis papers at Yale. The book includes extensive exerpts from the letters they exchanged, and a highlight, to me, was an article about Lewis that Thompson had published in the Atlantic Monthly after his death, included as an appendix.
Despite the friendship, [Dorothy and Red] is not hagiography. It is not a full biography of either Thompson or Lewis, but a memoir of their life together. An enjoyable and worthwhile read.… (altro)