8.4 /10 1 Votes8.4
4.4/5 Barnes & Noble Language English Media type Print ISBN 0-394-48009-0 Publisher Alfred A. Knopf | 4/5 Goodreads Country United States Publication date 1972 Pages 305 Originally published 1972 Page count 305 Awards Prix Médicis étranger | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Fiction, Speculative fiction Similar Steven Millhauser books, Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright is the critically acclaimed debut novel by American author Steven Millhauser, published in 1972 and written in the form of a biography of a fictitious person by a fictitious author. It was Millhauser's best known novel until the publication of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Martin Dressler in 1997, and according to Patrick McGrath writing in The New York Times it is his best work. Edwin Mullhouse is described by Publishers Weekly as a 'cult novel'.
Contents
Plot introduction
Jeffrey Cartwright plays Boswell to Edwin Mullhouse's Johnson, and writes his biography. Edwin is an "eccentric young show-off who fancied himself something of a literary wonder"; he writes a novel at age ten, but dies mysteriously at age eleven.
The biography is divided into three parts:
- The Early Years: Aug. 1, 1943 – Aug. 1, 1949: The "pre-literate years" in which Cartwright tells of Edwin's birth and childhood in Newfield, Connecticut including time spent in Kindergarten.
- The Middle Years: Aug. 2, 1949 – Aug. 1, 1952: The "literate years" when Edwin attends school; his tragic obsession with Rose Dorn featuring prominently.
- The Late Years: Aug. 2, 1952 – Aug. 1, 1954: The "literary years" cover the writing of Edwin's novel Cartoons and his untimely death.