Michael Arlen (1895-1956) was a literary shooting star among the smart set of the 1920s. The self-styled chronicler of Mayfair society, he became an international celebrity after the publication of his scandalous novel The Green Hat in 1924. Born into an immigrant Armenian community in Lancashire, following early breakthrough in London he led a millionaire's life on the Riviera and dabbled in the Hollywood film industry before living out his final years, all but forgotten, in retirement in New York. For all his success as a purveyor of popular fiction, he remained forever an 'outsider', arousing both fascination and suspicion in the English-speaking world.

Encounters with Michael Arlen is a set of overlapping essays that reflect how the novelist was seen by himself and by his contemporaries. Unlike a conventional biography, the emphasis is on his connections with other leading figures of the day, especially fellow writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway and Rebecca West.

The book is also a rumination by the author on the sheer difficulty of writing literary biography. With its comprehensive timeline and listing of archive materials relating to Arlen, it should serve as a stimulus to future research on this neglected and enigmatic personality.

About the Author
Philip Ward is a writer, composer and former parliamentary research librarian. His publications include Hofmannsthal and Greek Myth, a translation of Frank Wedekind's novella Mine-Haha, and studies of the work of Sandy Denny, Laura Nyro and Helen Mirren, as well as a volume of essays Instead of a Critic. He lives in Cambridge, UK, where he is a Senior Member of Wolfson College.

Reviews

"I have just finished reading Philip Ward's wonderful book on Michael Arlen, and I can't say how much I admire and enjoyed it. Ward must have done such an enormous amount of research, and I was completely fascinated by all the details of Arlen's life and of the wide and wonderful cast list. Ward portrays his many social and literary worlds with such clarity. I was particularly intrigued by Arlen's difficult relationship with Hemingway, as well as the influence on him of writers such as Fitzgerald and Lawrence, and riveted by his affair with Nancy Cunard, about which I had known nothing. I am now about to re-read The Green Hat, which I haven't done for decades." Selina Hastings, biographer of Nancy Mitford, Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh

Book Information
ISBN 9781805141143
Author Philip Ward
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Matador
Publisher Troubador Publishing