Indeed, one finishes Bailey’s biography wondering how Jackson survived as long as he did.īlake Bailey has dissected complex, self-destructive literary lives in his biographies of Richard Yates and John Cheever, and Farther and Wilder will no doubt add to his reputation as the premiere chronicler of tormented American writers. The second crash–Jackson’s long decline into substance abuse and depression that leads to his suicide – is anything but surprising. Thirteen-year-old Charlie is spared, having holed up in the library that Sunday afternoon. The first is unexpected: on a leisurely ride in 1916, Jackson’s older sister and younger brother are killed when a train strikes their car. ‘Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson’ by Blake Baileyīlake Bailey’s fascinating new biography, Farther and Wilder: the Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson (Knopf), begins and ends with a fatal crash.
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