BUtterfield 8

John O'Hara was born in Pennsylvania on 31 January 1905. His first novel, Appointment in Samarra (1934), won him instant acclaim, and he quickly came to be regarded as one of the most prominent writers in America. He won the National Book Award for his novel Ten North Frederick and had more stories published in the New Yorker than anyone in the history of the magazine. His fourteen novels include A Rage to Live, Pal Joey, BUtterfield 8 and From the Terrace. John O'Hara died on 11 April 1970.

"A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well" -- Ernest Hemingway "O'Hara understood better than any other American writer how class can both reveal and shape character" -- Fran Lebowitz "O'Hara occupies a unique position...He is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust" -- Lionel Trilling New York Times "Better than anyone else, he told the truth about his time, the first half of the twentieth century. He was a professional. He wrote honestly and well" -- John O'Hara on John O'Hara. He had this inscribed on his gravestone "More than any other American novelist, O'Hara has both reflected his times and captured the unique individual for generations to come" Los Angeles Times