Reading for My Life

A landmark collection of essays on literature and culture from one of America's most beloved and influential critics.

Right up until his death in 2008, John Leonard was a lion in American letters. A passionate, erudite, and wide-ranging critic, he helped shape the landscape of modern literature. He reviewed the most celebrated writers of his age-from Kurt Vonnegut and Joan Didion to Thomas Pynchon and Michael Chabon. He also contributed many pieces on television, film, politics, and the media that still retain their freshness. Collected here are Leonard's best writings-many never before published in book form-on the cultural touchstones of a generation, each piece a testament to his sharp wit, fierce intelligence, and lasting love of the arts. The volume also includes remembrances by Leonard's friends, family, and colleagues, including Gloria Steinem and Victor Navasky.

"The smartest man who ever lived."
-Kurt Vonnegut

"A literary critic in the noblest sense of the word."
-Studs Terkel

"John Leonard is my favorite guide to the zeitgeist."
-Barbara Ehrenreich

"Wickedly clever and deliciously entertaining."
-The New York Times Book Review

"For any partisan of intellectual journalism, Leonard is a small treasure."
-The Village Voice

"One of the two or three best literary critics in America. To virtually any book, Leonard can apply intellect and language without sacrificing either." -Time

"Funny and smart as hell."
-Rolling Stone

"[Leonard] transformed the stodgy pages of the book review with a
pyrotechnic writing style."
-The Washington Post

"The best American literary critic to come of age in the 1960s... Leonard has been one of the few literary essayists who can make sense of the erosion of highbrow culture, ruing elements of its loss while embracing the forces of popular culture."
-Columbia Journalism Review

"Leonard has the requisite erudition and enthusiasm to sustain ... astonishing riffs, putting the rest of the bookworm band not just in the shade but in total eclipse."
-The Boston Globe