William Gaddis

A dying man lies in bed thinking about how he will write a book and grumbling about the pending fall of civilization, in the final novel by the late, National Book Award-winning author of A Frolic of His Own. Reprint.

Agapē Agape

This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge—is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, The Washington Post Book World).

Carpenter's Gothic

William H. Gass

Obsessed with seventeenth-century Flemish masterpieces, Wyatt Gwyon forges original artwork amazingly faithful to the spirit and techniques of the time.

The Recognitions

"JR won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction"--

A satirically jaundiced view of modern law and justice chronicles the fortunes of Oscar Crease, a middle-aged college instructor and playwright, as he sues a Hollywood producer for pirating a play. 35,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

A Novel

A Frolic of His Own

A collection of essays and critical writings by the late author of the National Book Award-winning A Frolic of His Own ranges from "Stop Player, Joke No. 4," Gaddis's first published piece, to the title essay about missed opportunities in America in the past fifty years, to "Old Foes with New Faces," a study of the relationship between the writer and religion. Original.

Essays and Occasional Writings

The Rush for Second Place

Rick Moody

A humorous take on the American dream as JR, an eleven-year-old boy, uses his newfound knowledge of business and the stock market to build a huge and exploitive business empire.

Ágape, agonia

Steven Moore

A collection of definitive letters by the National Book Award-winning author of J R and A Frolic of His Own shares insights into his boarding-school education, his years in Mexico and other countries, his struggles with family life and the factors that influenced his acclaimed novels.

Letters of William Gaddis

Agonie d'agapè est le chant du cygne de William Gaddis, le monologue d'un homme rongé par la maladie et assiégé par les pages d'un manuscrit qu'il n'a cessé de reprendre au fil des ans, l'apogée d'une obsession vieille de quarante années. D'une voix singulière. il développe une réflexion sur la mécanisation des arts ci le dédis de l'artiste parvenu au seuil de sa vie.

Agonie d'agapè

Recognitions

Le perizie

A dying man lies in bed thinking about how he will write a book and grumbling about the pending fall of civilization, in the final novel by the late, National Book Award-winning author of A Frolic of His Own. 40,000 first printing.

Amerikan Gotiği

A revelatory collection of correspondence by the lauded author of titanic American classics such as The Recognitions and J R, shedding light on his staunchly private life. Now recognized as one of the giants of postwar American fiction, William Gaddis shunned the spotlight during his life, which makes this collection of his letters a revelation. Beginning in 1930, when Gaddis was at boarding school, and ending in September 1998, a few months before his death, these letters function as a kind of autobiography and are all the more valuable because he was not an autobiographical writer. Here we see him forging his first novel, The Recognitions, while living in Mexico; fighting in a revolution in Costa Rica; and working in Spain, France, and North Africa. Over the next twenty years he struggles to find time to write the National Book Award–winning J R amid the complications of work and family; deals with divorce and disillusionment before reviving his career with Carpenter’s Gothic; then teaches himself enough about the law to indite A Frolic of His Own, which earned him another National Book Award. Returning to a topic he first wrote about in the 1940s, he finishes his last novel, Agapē Agape, as he is dying.

Revised Edition

The Letters of William Gaddis

This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge-is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, The Washington Post Book World).

William Gaddis

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