Featured Author: Terry Southern
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"A Grand Guy: The Art and Life of Terry Southern"
By Lee Hill
"Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern,
1950-1995"
Edited by Nile Southern and Josh Alan Friedman
Claire Dederer reviews these two new books about the author
famous for his novel "Candy," which made his name in 1964,
and also for "The Magic Christian" and the screenplay for
"Dr. Strangelove."
The 60's were, for Southern, a protracted party, Dederer
writes. "But the zeitgeist hustled on to the next thing,
which turned out to be hippies. Southern tagged along. He
traded swank threads for jeans, drank and drugged harder
than ever, remained adamantly opposed to the Man. Even so,
his peculiar form of eggheaded pranksterism fell from
style." He died in 1995 "that benighted being, the cult
writer." Southern's life is "so rich in dramatic elements
that it cries out for a full and intelligent treatment.
Unfortunately, Hill seems determined not to read any meaning
into Southern's rise and fall," Dederer concludes.
The anthology of Southern's work, edited by his son, Nile,
and Josh Alan Friedman, a writer and musician who is the son
of the novelist Bruce Jay Friedman, "reveals a writer
defined by his generosity, by the pursuit of fun and by an
insatiable hunger apparent in the autobiographical pieces
here. . . . In this collection we find a writer of variety:
a maker of screenplays, stories, journalism, memoir and
criticism of great force and wit. In writing, as in life, he
wanted to try everything once."
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/06/17/reviews/010617.17deder.html?0615bk
Featured Author: Terry Southern
This retrospective features Southern's 1995 obituary and
reviews of his books, including "Candy" (1964) and movie
scripts, including "Dr. Strangelove" (1964).
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/06/17/specials/southern.html?0615bk
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