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James Purdy (1923 - )
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 Gertrude
of Stony Island Avenue : A Novel by
James Purdy
In 1956, James Purdy
published Don't Call Me By My Right Name and Other Stories,
and in the years since, he has produced some of the most
remarkable stories, novels, and plays in the English language.
Praised by artists as diverse as Dame Edith Sitwell, Gore Vidal,
and John Waters for his evocative diction, emotional subtlety, and
disturbingly baroque narratives, Purdy has created an emotional,
psychological landscape uniquely American in its depiction of
fear, love, loss, and violence. In Gertrude of Stony Island
Avenue--his 14th novel and 46th book--he charts the life of
Carrie Kinsella, a stifled, repressed woman who suddenly realizes
the emptiness of her own life after the death of her daughter
Gertrude, a brilliant artist. In her search for the
"real" Gertrude, Carrie realizes that it is actually
herself she is attempting to find. As in his classics Eustace
Chisolm and the Works and In
a Shallow Grave, Purdy's understanding of the horrors of
the human heart--and the slim but possible potential for
salvation--shines through here in ways that are devastating and
sublime. Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue is James Purdy at
his best, which is to say magnificent. --Michael Bronski
(Amazon.com)
 Narrow
Rooms (Gay Modern Classics Series) by
James Purdy
Released from a prison sentence for
manslaughter, Sidney returns home to West Virginia, where, to
exorcise the memory of the lover he killed, he must keep his
appointment with destiny in the shape of the man known as
"the Renderer".
A cult book that Derek Jarman planned to film, this "dark and
splendid affair by an authentic American genius" (Gore Vidal)
is a shattering novel of sexual passion in the remote
Appalachians, and a journey into the dark night of the American
soul.
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Copyright © 1990 by the Yale University Library.
The James Purdy Papers were the gift of James
Purdy between 1962 and 1973, with the exceptions of Purdy's
letters to John Cowper Powys, which are the 1964 gift of Phyllis
Playter, and the autographed score of Robert Helps's "The
Running Sun," which is the 1972 gift of the composer.
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University
of Delaware Library, Special Collections
The James Purdy Manuscript Collection spans the
years 1961 to 1978 and contains three items: a short story, Everything
Under the Sun; and two novels, I am Elijah Thrush,
and Narrow Rooms.
Originally published in Partisan Review,
Everything Under the Sun was included in Purdy's 1961
collection Children is All (New Directions). This ten
page carbon typescript includes several minor corrections by the
author.
Purdy began writing Narrow Rooms in
1975 in Brooklyn and finished the novel two years later while
staying in Berkeley. His inscription on the title page indicates
that it was based upon a true story. The 234-page typescript is
the printer's final copy and includes only minor corrections by
the author.
The typescript of I am Elijah Thrush is
perhaps most interesting from a scholarly standpoint because it
contains extensive corrections and additions by the author. Pages
eight through ten were almost entirely reworked, and Purdy
inserted an additional page of material which he labeled
"48a" for the printer. I am Elijah Thrush was
first published by Doubleday in 1972.
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University
of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Excerpt:
From the outset of his writing career, Purdy has
had difficulty attracting the attention of both publishers and
critics. His first several short stories were rejected by every
magazine to which he sent them, and he was forced to sign with a
private publisher for his first two books, 63: Dream Palace
and Don't Call Me by My Right Name and Other Stories,
both published in 1956. Hoping to increase his readership, Purdy
sent copies of these first two books to writers he admired,
including English poet Dame Edith Sitwell. Sitwell raved about
Purdy's work and helped convince an English publisher, Gollancz,
to publish and distribute Purdy's books in England. Purdy's
writing was introduced in the United States a year later when his
previous books were published together in one volume, Color of
Darkness: Eleven Stories and a Novella (1957)...
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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