Complete Fiction of W. M. Spackman (American Literature (Dalkey Archive))

From Booklist Literary connoisseurs will appreciate this omnibus edition of the novels of a very special fiction writer. Spackman (1905^-90), an American, is known by serious readers as a great stylist, a quality prominently displayed in this gathering of his five published novels and one unpublished and two short stories. Elegant, witty, and urbane, Spackman's fiction presents achingly beautiful and never less than scintillating depictions of the psychology of love and sexual attraction. These novels and stories are to be read for the entertainment value of their story lines, but more than that, for the breathtaking experiencing of exquisite language. Brad Hooper Product Description Described by Stanley Elkin as "this country's best-kept literary secret" and "a lost American classic," W. M. Spackman is one of the finest writers of the twentieth century. This omnibus edition includes all five of the author's previously published novels: "Heyday" (and here presented with revisions the author made shortly before his death); and the critically acclaimed novels published between 1978 and 1985: "An Armful of Warm Girl" (1978), "A Presence with Secrets" (1980), "A Difference of Design" (1983), and "A Little Decorum, for Once" (1985). The novel "As I Sauntered Out, One Midcentury Morning" is published here for the first time, as well as the author's only two short stories. From Kirkus Reviews Spackman published his first novel, Heyday, in 1953. Although he soon after left his position as a classics professor to devote himself to writing, his second novel, An Armful of Warm Girl, did not find a publisher until 1978, when Spackman was 72. That may have been because the book, featuring a dapper, randy, upper-class protagonist and the various well-to-do women with whom he has affairs--its amours described in an elegant, droll prose, and its view of adultery unsettlingly lighthearted--seemed so unlike anything else being written. The novel was sufficiently successful to allow Spackman to keep publishing: In quick succession the A Presence with Secrets, A Difference of Design, and A Little Decorum, For Once (all sharing the confectionary prose and worldly wise esprit of Armful) were issued. A sixth novel, As I Sauntered Out, One Midcentury Morning, was in manuscript when Spackman died in 1990. All are assembled here, along with two short pieces, in a welcome gathering of the work of one of the most idiosyncratic, provocative, and intensely stylish American writers of recent decades. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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