Myself and Strangers
In Myself and Strangers, John Graves, the highly regarded author of Goodbye to a River and other classic works, recalls the decade-long apprenticeship in which he found his voice as a writer. He recounts his wanderings from Texas to Mexico, New York, and Spain, where, like Hemingway, he hoped to find the material with which to write books that mattered. With characteristic honesty, Graves admits the false starts and dead ends that dogged much of his writing, along with the exhilaration he felt when the words finally flowed. He frankly describes both the pleasures and the restlessness of expatriate life in Europe after World War II—as well as his surprising discovery, when family obligations eventually called him home to Texas, that the years away had prepared him to embrace his native land as the fit subject matter for his writing. For anyone seeking the springs that fed John Graves' best-loved books, this memoir of apprenticeship will be genuinely rewarding.
Graves is a master of visual detail, and his journey unfolds with the picturesque clarity of a film.
An altogether commendable picture of a time and of a man who proved singularly American.
A lovely memoir of young manhood, Europe, the aftermath of war, and the search for craft, by an urbane stylist who found, in his excellent prose, the poise that he was seeking.
I know of no other book about a writer's apprenticeship from Graves' generation that has quite the candor, quite the remedies for the displacement of war, or exactly this excitement at being given a rain check on life itself. A great book, a great writer.
A shrewd, lucid, and uncomfortably perceptive story of a writer's apprenticeship.
John Graves (1920-2013) lived and wrote in Glen Rose, Texas, in the Hard Scrabble country that inspired so much of his work. A recipient of many honors for his writing (including a National Book Award nomination for Goodbye to a River), he is a former President and a Fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters and a past holder of Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships.
- Author's Preface
- One. Origins
- Two. A Mexican Interlude
- Three. Flounderings, and Escape Across the Waters
- Four. An Island Full of Noises
- Five. Mainly Madrid
- Six. Tenerife and Going Home
- Seven. Long Island and the Book
- Eight. The End of a Time
