Summary
A twentieth-century classic, Appointment in Samarra is the first and most widely read book by the writer Fran Leibowitz called "the real F. Scott Fitzgerald."
In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville social circuit is electrified with parties and dances, where the music plays late into the night and the liquor flows freely. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English-the envy of friends and strangers alike. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction. Appointment in Samarra brilliantly captures the personal politics and easy bitterness of small-town life. It is John O'Hara's crowning achievement, and a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence of a major American novelist.
John Henry O'Hara was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania on January 31, 1905. Many of his novels and short stories were set in fictionally named Pennsylvania towns with the main themes centering on class conflict and status.
He began writing for the New Yorker in 1928; and during his life, sold 225 stories to the magazine. His first collection, The Doctor's Son and Other Stories (1935) was followed by twelve more. Pal Joey (1940) was made into a Broadway musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and later was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth.
Some of his published novels include Appointment in Samarra (1934), A Rage to Live (1949), The Lockwood Concern (1965), and The Good Samaritan and Other Stories (published posthumously in 1974). Ten North Frederick (1955) won the National Book Award and Butterfield 8 (1935) and From the Terrace (1958) were adapted into movies in 1960. He died from cardiovascular disease on April 11, 1970.
(Bowker Author Biography)
