New Releases by Blake Bailey

A canceled bestselling author’s highly personal account of his public scandal—a scandal that was reported on the front page of the New York Times and throughout the world. Blake Bailey grew up in the shadow of his father, Burck, an eminent litigator—president of the Oklahoma Bar Association and widely considered a sort of real-life Atticus Finch: “His conduct, honesty, integrity, and courtesy best exemplify and represent the highest standards of the legal profession,” his colleagues commended him in a 1989 award citation. As for Blake, he was a late bloomer who finally came into his own as a writer. His fourth literary biography, Philip Roth, was published on April 6, 2021, and hailed as “a narrative masterwork” by Cynthia Ozick on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. The 900-page book debuted at #12 on the Times Nonfiction Bestseller list. But success came at a terrible price: because of revelations in Bailey’s biography, many were calling for Roth and his work to be “canceled,” while others thought Bailey had been overly sympathetic and even “complicitous” with his subject’s worst failings. Soon rumors exploded on the internet about Bailey’s own private life, and within days he himself was roundly canceled. Canceled Lives is the story of a father and son who had much in common—for better and for worse—and who supported each other in the midst of terrible family strife, including the drug addiction and suicide of Blake’s older brother, Scott. Having achieved a success in life that Blake, at least, never expected, both father and son were ravaged by the ordeal of Blake’s spectacular public humiliation.

In the era of cancel culture, get a behind the scenes look at the journey to the critically acclaimed Philip Roth: The Biography and its "canceled" subject and author. In 2012, the acclaimed biographer Blake Bailey persuaded Philip Roth—commonly known as “our greatest living novelist,” and famous for his staunchly guarded privacy—to give him complete and exclusive access to Roth’s friends, family, papers, and person. Their peculiar rapport evolved over the next six years, warm and contentious in turn, until Roth’s death in 2018. Philip Roth: The Biography was published on April 6, 2021, and hailed as “a masterwork” by Cynthia Ozick on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. The 900-page book debuted at #12 on the Times Nonfiction Bestseller list. But ominous forces were afoot: because of revelations in his book, many were calling for Philip Roth and his work to be “canceled,” while others seemed to think Bailey had been overly sympathetic and even “complicitous” with his subject’s worst failings. Soon rumors exploded on the internet about Bailey’s own private life, and within days he himself was roundly canceled. In Repellent, Bailey looks back at his fraught collaboration with Philip Roth, whose reputation as a misogynist, philanderer, and self-hating Jew—not to say one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era—left him obsessively preoccupied with his only authorized biography. Bailey also frankly describes his own wayward behavior, and reflects on the extent to which writers’ personal lives should affect the perception of their work. Repellent is a provocative account of the private Philip Roth and his biographer, as well as a clear-eyed examination of the perils courted by any writer or artist—fallible human beings, after all—in the era of cancel culture.

Excitement to one person can be horror to another. Day in and day out, ordinary people encounter situations that have the ability to transform their interpretation of reality from what they perceive it to be to what truly exists outside of self accepted prisons of the mind. For Sally Anne, one day life is marching along to the hum drum status quo. Then, without warning, events unfold that force her to emerge into a realm of unexperienced opportunities that show her things about herself and the world, things she never could have imagined and, now, never wants to lose. As she journeys through the unknown, her life touches the lives of others causing the same effect to ripple through their reality. Join these sojourners as their adventures take them out of the confinement of theirindividual "caves" and thrust them into life in a much more spectacular way - ways they never dreamed existed.

Blake’s second novel, Zapatista, is faithfully based on the facts of the 1994 Chiapas Indian uprising in southern Mexico. Whether looking for an adventure story or a deeper look into the real drama of a people’s revolution, you’ll find that in Zapatista. Peter, the protagonist, running from devastating life events and the associated guilt involved, finds himself in the heart of the Sierra Madre hoping to drink, write, and find adventure in that order. But Peter gets more adventure than bargained for through a series of whirlwind circumstances that hurl him into the middle of a life and death struggle for a revolutionary cause and the love of Lxil, an Indian woman, both catalysts that forever change Peter’s life.

Grandfather’s Advice, written in English and Spanish, gifts to the reader the basic tenets of the things that lead to friendly relationships, a good life and peace with self. Through Grandfather’s Advice, Blake’s love for his grandchildren is extended to children and grandchildren all over the world, whatever your age. And don’t miss the ANIMATED VERSION of Grandfather''s Advice.

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Un retrato imprescindible de un maestro estadounidense y de la escena literaria de la posguerra. La figura del escritor ha encontrado pocas encarnaciones tan emblemáticas como en Philip Roth. Tras pasar años estudiando a fondo su archivo personal, Blake Bailey realizó entrevistas a amigos, amantes y colegas, y mantuvo conversaciones de una franqueza asombrosa con el propio Roth. Esta biografía recorre la vida del autor, desde su infancia, en un entorno judío de clase media-baja, hasta la cumbre de su fama. Analiza el peso que su desastroso primer matrimonio tuvo en su carrera, su labor en beneficio de colegas disidentes del otro lado del Telón de Acero, su rivalidad con amigos como John Updike o William Styron y su tumultuosa vida amorosa, en especial su relación con Claire Bloom. Un texto honesto y documentado a conciencia que rastrea el recorrido de un maestro de la novela tan amado como cuestionado, pero imprescindible para la literatura contemporánea. La crítica ha dicho: « Philip Roth. La biografía (Debate), del perseguidor de vidas de escritores Blake Bailey, es una proeza en la que asombra cómo su autor persigue el dédalo de interminables detalles documentados hasta la extenuación de los 85 años que vivió el hombre que escribió El lamento de Portnoy sin que la prosa del conjunto desfallezca. [...] Bailey, [...] logra ahora al pelearse con el fantasma de Roth durante casi mil páginas que el adjetivo "apasionante" no suene manido y huero». Daniel Arjona, El Confidencial «Minuciosa y rica en detalles, la obra de Bailey dota de un marco y una profundidad esclarecedores, siempre eludiendo el juicio moral, a la obra del autor, tan paralela a su vida». Andrés Seoane, La Lectura, El Mundo «Una biografía encantadora, sabia e ingeniosa que logra un equilibrio y una exhaustividad que parecerían imposibles tras tan poco tiempo de la muerte de Roth». Jonathan Lethem «Todo lo que siempre quiso saber sobre Philip Roth lo puede descubrir en sus novelas. Todo lo que siempre quiso saber sobre lo que le costó convertirse en uno de los mayores escritores estadounidenses de nuestro tiempo lo encontrará en la impresionante biografía de Blake Bailey». Nicole Krauss «La novela del siglo XIX sigue viva. Su nombre hoy es «biografía»; su naturaleza es de magnitud dostoievskiana. Y el exhaustivo relato de la vida de Philip Roth que hace Bailey es una obra maestra de la narrativa». Cynthia Ozick «Superlativa, definitiva y genuinamente apasionante. Guía con lucidez a través de un denso palimpsesto de identidades ficticias, enemistades literarias y mujeres». The Sunday Times «Una lectura compulsiva.Magníficamente escrita. Es difícil imaginar un libro que ofrezca respuestas más definitivas que este». The Observer

Com garantias de independência e acesso total, durante quase dez anos Blake Bailey passou a pente fino o vasto arquivo pessoal de Philip Roth, entrevistou amigos, amantes e colegas do escritor, e manteve com ele longas e exaustivas conversas de uma franqueza desconcertante. O resultado é um retrato inesquecível de um mestre americano e do panorama literário do pós-guerra.Bailey revela-nos como Roth, nascido em Newark no seio de uma modesta família judaica, chegou ao cume da fama literária, como um catastrófico primeiro casamento quase lhe arruinou prematuramente a carreira, como se empenhou na divulgação das obras de escritores dissidentes dos países da Cortina de Ferro – escritores da outra Europa. Explora as amizades e rivalidades de Roth com Saul Bellow, John Updike e William Styron, entre outros, e revela as verdades da sua profusa vida amorosa, que culminou na relação de vinte e um anos com a atriz Claire Bloom.Acompanhando a prodigiosa trajetória literária de Roth – trinta e um livros publicados – do realismo às trágicas obras-primas da Trilogia Americana (Pastoral Americana, Casei com Um Comunista e A Mancha Humana), passando pela farsa e pela metaficção – Bailey analisa o papel de Roth em quase todos os aspetos da cultura americana do pós-guerra.

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist ''Autobiography'' The renowned biographer’s unforgettable portrait of a family in ruins—his own. Meet the Baileys: Burck, a prosperous lawyer once voted the American Legion’s “Citizen of the Year” in his tiny hometown of Vinita, Oklahoma; his wife Marlies, who longs to recapture her festive life in Greenwich Village as a pretty young German immigrant, fresh off the boat; their addled son Scott, who repeatedly crashes the family Porsche; and Blake, the younger son, trying to find a way through the storm. “You’re gonna be just like me,” a drunken Scott taunts him. "You’re gonna be worse." Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Blake Bailey has been hailed as "addictively readable" by the New York Times and praised for his ability to capture lives "compellingly and in harrowing detail" by Time. The Splendid Things We Planned is his darkly funny account of growing up in the shadow of an erratic and increasingly dangerous brother, an exhilarating and sometimes harrowing story that culminates in one unforgettable Christmas.

“I don’t want you to rehabilitate me,” Philip Roth said to his only authorized biographer, Blake Bailey. “Just make me interesting.” Granted complete independence and access, Bailey spent almost ten years poring over Roth’s personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and listening to Roth’s own breathtakingly candid confessions. Cynthia Ozick, in her front-page rave for the New York Times Book Review, described Bailey’s monumental biography as “a narrative masterwork … As in a novel, what is seen at first to be casual chance is revealed at last to be a steady and powerfully demanding drive. … under Bailey’s strong light what remains on the page is one writer’s life as it was lived, and―almost―as it was felt." Though Roth is generally considered an autobiographical novelist—his alter-egos include not only the Roth-like writer Nathan Zuckerman, but also a recurring character named Philip Roth—relatively little is known about the actual life on which so vast an oeuvre was supposedly based. Bailey reveals a man who, by design, led a highly compartmentalized life: a tireless champion of dissident writers behind the Iron Curtain on the one hand, Roth was also the Mickey Sabbath-like roué who pursued scandalous love affairs and aspired “[t]o affront and affront and affront till there was no one on earth unaffronted"—the man who was pilloried by his second wife, the actress Claire Bloom, in her 1996 memoir, Leaving a Doll’s House. Towering above it all was Roth’s achievement: thirty-one books that give us “the truest picture we have of the way we live now,” as the poet Mark Strand put it in his remarks for Roth’s Gold Medal at the 2001 American Academy of Arts and Letters ceremonial. Tracing Roth’s path from realism to farce to metafiction to the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores Roth’s engagement with nearly every aspect of postwar American culture.

Poetry. "''The definition of metaphor/ is the transfer of burden, so pay attention.'' This, the opening stanza of Maggie Blake Bailey''s VISITATION, gives us a taste of what''s to come: the body ''an advent calendar;'' ''each church a brick leaning against the night.'' Bailey''s metaphors are at once startling and just-right, and her themes--motherhood, place, faith, and the narratives we carry from childhood into our adult lives--are timeless. What a gift it is to see the world filtered through this poet''s imagination and intelligence."--Maggie Smith

" ... is written for the people who run construction companies, construction lawyers, and bankruptcy professionals representing parties in distressed construction matters. Authors Jay Bender and James Bailey identify and analyze the recurring, material issues that arise in construction-related bankruptcies, and describe specific strategies that project owners, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and project lenders should consider when confronted with a construction-related bankruptcy"--Publisher''s website.

Charles Jackson’s novel The Lost Weekend—the story of five disastrous days in the life of an alcoholic—was published in 1944 to triumphant success. Although he tried to escape its legacy, Jackson is often remembered only as the author of this thinly veiled autobiography. In Farther & Wilder, the award-winning biographer of Richard Yates and John Cheever goes deeper, exploring Jackson’s life—from growing up in the scandal-plagued village of Newark, New York, to a career in Hollywood and friendships with everyone from Judy Garland and Billy Wilder to Thomas Mann and Mary McCarthy. This is the fascinating biography of a writer whose life and work encapsulated what it meant to be an addict and a closeted homosexual in mid-century America, and who was far ahead of his time in bringing these forbidden subjects into the popular discourse.

The Diary of Resurrectionist 1811-1812 to which are Added an Account of the Resurrection Men in London and a Short History of the Passing of the Anatomy Act. First published in 1896.

John Cheever spent much of his career impersonating a perfect suburban gentleman, the better to become one of the foremost chroniclers of postwar America. Written with unprecedented access to essential sources—including Cheever’s massive journal, only a fraction of which has ever been published—Bailey’s Cheever is a stunning example of the biographer’s art and a brilliant tribute to an essential author.

This landmark volume combines the entire Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, "The Stories of John Cheever," with seven selections from Cheever''s first book, "The Way Some People Live."

Celebrated in his prime, forgotten in his final years, only to be championed anew by our greatest contemporary authors, Richard Yates has always exposed readers to the unsettling hypocrisies of our modern age. In Blake Bailey''s masterful and entertaining biography, Yates himself serves as the fascinating lens into mid-century America, a world of would-be artists, depressed housewives, addled businessmen, high living, wistful striving, and self-deception. The story of Richard Yates here stands as a singular reminder of what the writer must sacrifice for his craft, the devil''s bargain of artistry for happiness, praise for sanity.