1998, ISBN: 9780805059762

The untold life story of a novelist whose greatest fictional creation was his own identity. In a 1998 article in New York magazine, Dean King offered readers a small sampling of the secre… Mehr…

The untold life story of a novelist whose greatest fictional creation was his own identity. In a 1998 article in New York magazine, Dean King offered readers a small sampling of the secret history of Patrick O'Brian, the creator of the bestselling series of Aubrey-Maturin novels. O'Brian has always guarded the secrets of his personal history with a zealousness that has bordered on the obsessive. And for years his fanatical readers have speculated on the true story and spun myths about his past based on the lives of his characters. Dean King at last unveils the story of Richard Patrick Russ, a writer and intellectual who emerged from the Second World War as Patrick O'Brian, a persona created in his own imagination and later refined by decades of rumor and speculation. What motivated this radical change of identity? Was it connected to O'Brian's service during the war, or the messy divorce from his first wife? Or was it the inexplicable act of an eccentric genius?King has crisscrossed Europe to speak to long-lost relatives, friends, and colleagues of his famously reclusive subject and has fashioned this wealth of information into a dramatic narrative that will appeal to an audience far wider than O'Brian's already dedicated fans. Media > Book, [PU: Henry Holt and Company also Metropolitan Books]<

2000, ISBN: 9780805059762

Henry Holt, NY [c2000; First Edition 2000]. Hard Cover. 397 p., plates (photos), index; 24 cm. "I present a history of Patrick O'Brian, knowing it to be as incomplete as any col… Mehr…

Henry Holt, NY [c2000; First Edition 2000]. Hard Cover. 397 p., plates (photos), index; 24 cm. "I present a history of Patrick O'Brian, knowing it to be as incomplete as any collection of written words and photographs must be, to be held up for the better understanding of the genius of a complex man, undoubtedly one of the great men of letters of our time, and of his magnum opus, the Aubrey-Maturin novels." "Patrick O'Brian died two months before the publication of this book. His death was veiled in secrecy and mystery, just as his life was. O'Brian did not cooperate in the writing of this biography. In some instances he instructed friends and colleagues not to cooperate. Members of O'Brian's family, including his only surviving child, Richard Russ, were manifoldly helpful in filling out the portrait presented here. For some periods of O'Brian's life, documentary evidence exists... Not infrequently, the written and oral testimony contradicted the sparse, often sinuous autobiographical accounts that O'Brian... reluctantly produced." Selected Bibliography, 367-375. Pictorial dj; fine, gift quality. stock#44931., Henry Holt, NY [c2000; First Edition 2000], 0<