Summary and Reviews of About The Author by Alfred Glossbrenner

About The Author by Alfred Glossbrenner

About The Author

The Passionate Reader's Guide to the Authors You Love, Including Things You Never Knew, Juicy Bits You'll Want to Know, and Hundreds of Ideas for What to Read Next

by Alfred Glossbrenner
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Paperback:
  • May 2000, 320 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Offers insider information on America's favorite writers, from Margery Allingham to Evelyn Waugh, from Michael Crichton to Charles Dickens. It gives background on the lives of the writers, what they did before becoming writers, facts about their fans, quirky tidbits, and recommendations for what to read next.

For the book fiend in the family, the ultimate fan's guide

An indispensable guide for passionate readers, About the Author offers insider information on America's favorite writers, from Margery Allingham to Evelyn Waugh, from Michael Crichton to Charles Dickens. It gives background on the lives of the writers, what they did before becoming writers, facts about their fans, quirky tidbits, and recommendations for what to read next.

Chosen for their popularity, their staying power, and the intensity of their following, this amazing range of writers will appeal to all types of readers. Find out what movies and television shows were adapted from their novels, how they decided to become writers, what the Nobel Prize for literature did for some, and what being an Oprah selection did for others. In addition, About the Author includes lists galore: from Pulitzers to fan clubs, from bestseller lists to book conventions, from reading groups to CD-ROMs.

About the Author offers an engaging feast of information that any book lover will find hard to put down.

BookBrowse selects from the best and most popular books and features a substantial excerpt of each, usually a full chapter.

The excerptions to this rule are a handful of 'reading guide' books (including this title). In this case, BookBrowse has included the book even though an excerpt was unavailable because we feel it has a contribution to make to this relatively specialized category.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Booklist
The alphabetized order makes for some funny juxtapositions of commercial authors with literary luminaries, Danielle Steel followed by Wallace Stegner, for instance; but the Glossbrenners don't allow the pragmatic format to dull their commentary their short takes are informative and instantly addictive.

School Library Journal
The Glossbrenners include quite a few enticing bits of personal or professional facts on the two pages allotted to each of 125 popular authors, mainly from this country and Great Britain. A small black-and-white photograph appears with most entries.... The book includes lots of lists and information about book clubs, conventions, special events, and publishers. It offers just the right amount of facts for quick reference or to use as a starting point for more intense investigation.

Library Journal
Most of the 120 entries in this bibliographical treat are 20th-century authors selected for their popularity, staying power, and number of followers, though some earlier authors (e.g., Austen, Conrad, Tolstoy) frequently read as high school assignments are also included.... All the information provided here is available in less abbreviated form in Contemporary Authors, but this book is handy to use and reasonably priced.

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