Literary Lives

John Sutherland has picked out over 100 biographies from the "Dictionary of National Biography" to create this lively anthology of a selection of the most prominent figures in British 20th-century literature. Ever wondered...What inspires a person to write for a living? How they cope with success and failure? How some of our most famous literary characters were created? To what extent life events influence a person's writing? And to what extent the emotions of an age influence a person's writing? These profiles of the men and women who made themselves famous in the literary world present snapshots of the lives of the likes of W.H. Auden, Enid Blyton, G.K. Chesterton, T.S. Eliot, and Ethel Mannin as seen through the eyes of their friends, contemporaries, and admirers. Viewed as a collection these biographies illustrate the changing moods and developing genres in 20th-century English literature. Entries include: Stephen Spender on W.H. Auden, Paul Johnson on J.B. Priestley, Kingsley Amis on John Betjeman, Michael Denison on Noel Coward, Richard Ellmann on T.S. Eliot, John Wain on Philip Larkin, Woodrow Wyatt on Arthur Koestler, and Anthony Thwaite on Sylvia Plath.