In 18 essays, Brooke Allen explores the lives and work of some of the last century's most brilliant and eccentric literary talents. These writers embody in their very different ways the various attitudes of their contentious century.

In eighteen essays, Ms. Allen explores the lives and work of some of the last century's most brilliant and eccentric literary talents. Ms. Allen's appraisals, which combine extensive biographical information with new critical insights, richly illustrate the tenuous and often bizarre links between character and talent, between historical circumstances and individual vision. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.