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1970s In Literature
Fiction in the 1970s brought a return of old-fashioned storytelling, especially with Erich Segal's '' Love Story''. The early seventies also saw the decline of previously well-respected writers, such as Saul Bellow and Peter De Vries, both of whom released poorly received novels at the start of the decade, but rebounded critically as the decade wore on. Racism remained a key literary subject. John Updike emerged as a major literary figure with his 1971 novel ''Rabbit Redux''. Reflections of the 1960s experience also found roots in the literature of the decade through the works of Joyce Carol Oates and Wright Morris. With the rising cost of hardcover books and the increasing readership of "genre fiction", the paperback became a popular medium. Criminal non-fiction also became a popular topic. Irreverence and satire, typified in Kurt Vonnegut's ''Breakfast of Champions'', were common literary elements. The horror genre also emerged, and by the late seventies Stephen King had become ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Segal
Erich Wolf Segal (June 16, 1937January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, educator, and classicist who wrote the bestselling novel '' Love Story'' (1970) and its hit film adaptation. Early life and education Born and raised in a Jewish household in Brooklyn, New York, Segal was the first of three brothers. His father was a rabbi and his mother was a homemaker. His interest in writing and narrating stories developed as a child. He went to Midwood High School, during which he suffered a serious accident while canoeing. His coach advised him to jog as a part of his rehabilitation, which ended up becoming his passion and caused him to participate in the Boston Marathon more than 12 times. He attended Harvard College, graduating as both the class poet and Latin salutatorian in 1958, and then obtained his master's degree (in 1959) and a doctorate (in 1965) in comparative literature from Harvard University, after which he started teaching at Yale. Writing career In 1967, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he was a reporter for a few months for ''The Kansas City Star'' before leaving for the Italian Front (World War I), Italian Front to enlist as an ambulance driver in World War I. In 1918, he was se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helter Skelter (book)
''Helter Skelter: The True Story of The Manson Murders'' is a 1974 book by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. Bugliosi had served as the prosecutor in the 1970 trial of Charles Manson. The book presents his firsthand account of the cases of Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and other members of the self-described Manson Family. It is the best-selling true crime book in history. Description The book recounts and assesses the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of Charles Manson and his followers for the notorious 1969 murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, actress Sharon Tate, and several others. The book takes its title from the apocalyptic race war that Manson allegedly believed would occur, which in turn took its name from the song " Helter Skelter" by the Beatles. Manson had allegedly been particularly fascinated by the Beatles' '' White Album'', from which the song came. Reception and legacy ''Helter Skelter'' was first published in the United States in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Wambaugh
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937), is a best-selling American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Several of his early novels were set in Los Angeles and its surroundings and featured Los Angeles police officers as protagonists. He has been nominated for four Edgar Awards (winning three), and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Early life The son of a police officer, Wambaugh was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 and married at 18. Wambaugh is of Irish and German descent. Police career Wambaugh received an associate of arts degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1960. He served for 14 years, rising from patrolman to detective sergeant. He also attended Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned BA and MA degrees. Writing career Themes Wambaugh's perspective on police work led to his fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Onion Field
''The Onion Field'' is a 1973 nonfiction book by Joseph Wambaugh, a sergeant for the Los Angeles Police Department, chronicling the kidnapping of two plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals during a traffic stop and the subsequent murder of one of the officers. Crime On the night of March 9, 1963, LAPD officers Ian Campbell (age 31) and Karl Hettinger (age 28) were riding in an unmarked police car. They pulled over a 1946 Ford coupe containing two suspicious-looking men at the corner of Carlos Avenue and Gower Street in Hollywood. The two men, Gregory Ulas Powell (age 30) and Jimmy Lee Smith (a.k.a. "Jimmy Youngblood", age 32), had recently committed a string of robberies, and "each had a pistol tucked into his trousers". Powell, the driver, pulled a gun on Campbell, who "calmly told his partner, 'He has a gun in my back. Give him your gun.'" And he did as his partner requested. The two officers were then forced into Powell's car and, within 30 seconds after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For ''Gravity's Rainbow'', Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction."National Book Awards – 1974" . Retrieved 2012-03-29. (With essays by Casey Hicks and Chad Post from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog. The mock acceptance speech by Irwin Corey is not reprinted by NBF.) Hailing from |
Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for his bestselling novel ''Jaws'' and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works were also adapted for both cinema and television, including '' The Deep'', '' The Island'', '' Beast'', and ''White Shark.'' Later in life, Benchley expressed some regret for his tone in writing about sharks, which he felt indulged already present fear and false belief about sharks, and he became an advocate for marine conservation. Contrary to widespread rumor, Benchley did not believe that his writings contributed to shark depopulation, nor is there evidence that ''Jaws'' or any of his works did so. Early life Benchley was the son of Marjorie (née Bradford) and author Nathaniel Benchley and grandson of Algonquin Round Table founder Robert Benchley. His younger brother, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor. Peter Benchley was an alumn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judith Rossner
Judith Rossner (March 31, 1935 – August 9, 2005) was an American novelist, best known for her acclaimed best sellers '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1975) and ''August'' (1983). Life and career, 1935–1973 Born in New York City, on March 31, 1935, Judith Louise Perelman was raised in the Bronx. Her father, Joseph Perelman, was a textile official; her mother, Dorothy (Shapiro) Perelman, was a public school-teacher. Rossner wanted to be a writer, even before she could read or write, and dictated poems and stories to her "warmly supportive" mother. She was also encouraged by an uncle, the American-Canadian writer Charles Yale Harrison, best known for his best-selling story of World War I, ''Generals Die in Bed'' (1930). She was Jewish. After graduating from Taft High School, Rossner attended the City College of New York from 1952-54. She left college to marry Robert Rossner (1932–1999), a teacher and writer.Robert Rossner is best known for mystery novels written as Ivan T. Ross ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wright Morris
Wright Marion Morris (January 6, 1910 – April 25, 1998) was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms. Early life Morris was born in Central City, Nebraska; his boyhood home is on the National Register of Historic Places. His mother, Grace Osborn Morris, died six days after he was born. His father, William Henry Morris, worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. After Grace's death, Wright was cared for by a nanny, until his father made a trip to Omaha and returned with a young wife, Gertrude. In ''Will's Boy'', Morris states, "Gertrude was closer to my age than to my father's". Gertrude hated small-town life, but got along famously with Wright, as they shared many of the same childish tastes (both loved games, movies, and ice cream). In 1919, the family moved to Omaha, where they resided until 1924. During that i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, ''The Natural'', was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel '' The Fixer'' (also filmed), about antisemitism in the Russian Empire, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Biography Bernard Malamud was born in 1914 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Bertha (née Fidelman) and Max Malamud, Russian Jewish immigrants. A brother, Eugene, born in 1917, suffered from mental illness, lived a hard and lonely life and died in his fifties. Malamud entered adolescence at the start of the Great Depression. From 1928 to 1932, Bernard attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. During his youth, he saw many films and enjoyed relating their plots to his school friends. He was especially fond of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great benefit to humanity". Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as ''Burger's Daughter'' and ''July's People'' were banned. She was active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned, and gave Nelson Mandela advice on his famous I Am Prepared to Die, 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes. Early life Gordimer was born near Springs, Gauteng, an East Rand mining town outside Johannesburg. She was the second daughter of her parents. Her father, Isidore Gordimer, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
