About this title: This autobiography, published posthumously in 1968, introspectively explores the secret life Ackerley discovered his father led. In searching out the details of his father's life, Ackerley, a celebrated memoirist, discovers aspects of his own identity. In particular, he investigates his homosexuality.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Poseidon Press
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780671656751ISBN:0671656759
Description: Good with no dust jacket. Creases to spine and rubbing to cover; 9.25 x 5.5 x 1; 219 pages; When his father died, J. R. Ackerley was shocked to discover that he had led a secret life. And after Ackerley himself died, he left a surprise of his own; this coolly considered, unsparingly honest account of his quest to find out the whole truth about the man who had always eluded him in life. But Ackerley's pursuit of his father is also an exploration of the self, making My Father and Myself a ... read more
Description: Very Good. 0156623250 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please e us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Poseidon Press, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo
Date Published: 1968
ISBN-13:9780671656751ISBN:0671656759
Description: Very Good- No Jacket. Remainder Some rub marks, scuffs and soils. 219 pages. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: Paper
Publisher: Poseidon Press, Many
Date Published: 1968
Description: Cover Art. Very Good. No Jacket. Trade Paperback. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. X-library with normal flaws.....The cover has very light shelf wear...........The book may have minor flaws that may have gone unnoticed.... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1971
ISBN-13:9780140032406ISBN:0140032401
Description: Good. An average used book that has all pages intact. Could have some creasing on the spine or covers. Note this book is considered a trade or oversize paperback book. Our ultimate goal is to provide you with a satisfying customer experience. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
ISBN-13:9780156623254ISBN:0156623250
Description: Good. 0156623250 1st Harvest edition/printing trade paperback. Overall good+. Clean text, binding tight, spine straight. Cover has crease on back and upper front corner, edgewear. Scattered foxing on edges. Free delivery confirmation. read more
"The first time I heard about J.R. Ackerley was in Francine Prose's The Blue Angel, which I read in my mid-teens, because the narrator sought out particularly perverted literature, namely Ackerley's My Dog Tulip, which is about his (real, hand to God) affair with his gorgeous, sexy German effing Shepherd. I thought this book was entirely the invention of Prose's sick mind--untrue, it turns out! Thus, J.R. Ackerley's name has remained burned in the "Wrong" file of my mind, and the first sentence of My Father... does grab one "I was born in 1896 and my parents were married in 1919." I am surprised by how much I'm enjoying his style, which is veddy dry, veddy English, I'm imagining everything being read in a veddy proper BBC accent."
"This is one of the early entries in the New York Review of Books series (many of which I own; I am usually sucked in by the design, and they pick interesting ones). J.R. Ackerley, once literary editor of BBC's The Listener magazine, discovers his father had a secret mistress/second family, that his (J.R.'s) parents hadn't been married until he (J.R.) was 13, and that his father, in his younger years, may have had a gay relationship with a wealthy Count. All this while telling the tale of his own lonely, promiscuous gay life.
Ackerley's My Dog Tulip, which is sort of a gay, British Marley & Me, is much better. This is very British, a little dull (he doesn't really find out a whole lot about his father's past, so most questions put forth are never answered)."
"Wowzers! The reason this book is so shocking is mostly because of when it was written and the times it describes more than what is actually in the book. Ackerley is unflinching in his descriptions of his life with his father---it certainly is a "warts and all" sort of book-
My advice---ignore the introduction by Auden---what he says is a pseudo-psychological spiel that I have problems with because it seems to indicate that gays cannot have real relationships and also because it kind of ruins any surprise you might have with Ackerley's father.
This books reads like a bird let out of a cage--the vignettes are fascinating, and his straight-forwardness is refreshing---particularly coming from an ery where one did not speak about "indelicacies.""
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