On Becoming a Novelist

On Becoming a NovelistOn Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of

On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession. "A miraculously detailed account of the creative process."--Anne Tyler, Baltimore Sun

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 10/17/1999
ISBN: 9780393320039
Pages: 150
Weight: 0.37lbs
Size: 8.26h x 5.60w x 0.45d

Review Citations: New York Times 11/14/1999 pg. 38