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Tom Stoppard : a life / Hermione Lee.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2021Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First American editionDescription: x, 872 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), genealogical table ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780451493224
  • 0451493222
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
First acts -- In transit -- Englishness -- The newcomer -- Brennus -- Walking on water -- On the scene -- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead -- Success -- Miriam -- 'Tom Stoppard doesn't know' -- Acrobatics -- The home team -- Travesties -- Terra firma -- Prisoners of conscience -- The fourth estate -- Undiscovered countries -- The real thing -- Crossing -- Doubles -- Script doctor -- Changing states -- Arcadia -- Mother and son -- Reinventions -- The scar of time -- Sir Tom, OM -- Utopia -- Commitments and engagements -- Rock 'n' roll -- Parade's end -- Circumspice -- The eightieth year -- A charmed life.
Summary: "A perfect match of writer and subject: one of our most brilliant biographers takes on one of our greatest living playwrights--with his cooperation and access to a trove of hitherto unseen material. Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary genres: theater, radio, film, TV, journalism, and fiction. His most acclaimed creations--Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Shakespeare in Love--remain as fresh and moving as when they dazzled their first audiences. Stoppard's life, too, is fascinating: born in Czechoslovakia, he escaped the Nazis with his mother and spent his early years in Singapore and India before arriving in England at age eight. Skipping university, he embarked on a brilliant career, becoming close friends over the years with an astonishing array of writers, actors, directors, musicians, and political figures, from Peter O'Toole, Harold Pinter, and Stephen Spielberg to Mick Jagger and Vaclav Havel. Having long described himself as a "bounced Czech," Stoppard was surprised to learn late in life of his Jewish family and the relatives he lost to the Holocaust, secrets his mother had kept from him. Lee's in-depth analysis seamlessly weaves Stoppard's life and work together into a vivid, insightful, and always riveting portrait of a remarkable man"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography STOPPARD T. L478 Available 33111010475685
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR * One of our most brilliant biographers takes on one of our greatest living playwrights, drawing on a wealth of new materials and on many conversations with him.

"An extraordinary record of a vital and evolving artistic life, replete with textured illuminations of the plays and their performances, and shaped by the arc of Stoppard's exhilarating engagement with the world around him, and of his eventual awakening to his own past." -- Harper's

Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary genres: theater, radio, film, TV, journalism, and fiction. His most acclaimed creations-- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Shakespeare in Love-- remain as fresh and moving as when they entranced their first audiences.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard escaped the Nazis with his mother and spent his early years in Singapore and India before arriving in England at age eight. Skipping university, he embarked on a brilliant career, becoming close friends over the years with an astonishing array of writers, actors, directors, musicians, and political figures, from Peter O'Toole, Harold Pinter, and Stephen Spielberg to Mick Jagger and Václav Havel. Having long described himself as a "bounced Czech," Stoppard only learned late in life of his mother's Jewish family and of the relatives he lost to the Holocaust.

Lee's absorbing biography seamlessly weaves Stoppard's life and work together into a vivid, insightful, and always riveting portrait of a remarkable man.

"This is a Borzoi book" -- title page verso.

"A perfect match of writer and subject: one of our most brilliant biographers takes on one of our greatest living playwrights--with his cooperation and access to a trove of hitherto unseen material. Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary genres: theater, radio, film, TV, journalism, and fiction. His most acclaimed creations--Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Shakespeare in Love--remain as fresh and moving as when they dazzled their first audiences. Stoppard's life, too, is fascinating: born in Czechoslovakia, he escaped the Nazis with his mother and spent his early years in Singapore and India before arriving in England at age eight. Skipping university, he embarked on a brilliant career, becoming close friends over the years with an astonishing array of writers, actors, directors, musicians, and political figures, from Peter O'Toole, Harold Pinter, and Stephen Spielberg to Mick Jagger and Vaclav Havel. Having long described himself as a "bounced Czech," Stoppard was surprised to learn late in life of his Jewish family and the relatives he lost to the Holocaust, secrets his mother had kept from him. Lee's in-depth analysis seamlessly weaves Stoppard's life and work together into a vivid, insightful, and always riveting portrait of a remarkable man"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

First acts -- In transit -- Englishness -- The newcomer -- Brennus -- Walking on water -- On the scene -- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead -- Success -- Miriam -- 'Tom Stoppard doesn't know' -- Acrobatics -- The home team -- Travesties -- Terra firma -- Prisoners of conscience -- The fourth estate -- Undiscovered countries -- The real thing -- Crossing -- Doubles -- Script doctor -- Changing states -- Arcadia -- Mother and son -- Reinventions -- The scar of time -- Sir Tom, OM -- Utopia -- Commitments and engagements -- Rock 'n' roll -- Parade's end -- Circumspice -- The eightieth year -- A charmed life.

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