THOMAS MALLON -

THOMAS MALLON's eleven books of fiction include Henry and Clara, Fellow Travelers, Watergate (a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award) and, most recently, Up With the Sun. He has also written volumes of nonfiction about plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book of One's Own), letters (Yours Ever) and the Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine's Garage), as well as two books of essays (Rockets and Rodeos and In Fact). His work appears in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review and other publications. He received his Ph. D. in English and American Literature from Harvard University and taught for a number of years at Vassar College. His honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the National Book Critics Circle citation for reviewing, and the Vursell prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for distinguished prose style. He has been literary editor of Gentlemen's Quarterly and deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2012 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is Professor Emeritus of English at The George Washington University and lives in Washington, D. C.

THOMAS MALLON'S WASHINGTON TRILOGY:

"Mallon extends his sharp-eyed fictional exegesis of real-life American politics (Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years, 2015, etc.) into George W. Bush's second term . . . Marvelously detailed, often darkly funny, as informative as it is entertaining. Mallon may well be the 21st century's Anthony Trollope."

--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"In Finale, Mallon impressively blends his singular knowledge of political history with his limitless imagination to capture an era."

—Philadelphia Inquirer

"History, Mallon suggests, is not a clash of titans but just the magnified effects of ordinary people's secret longings and fears. That's nowhere more evident than in the novel's discerning portrayal of Richard Nixon . . . It's a brilliant presentation, subtle and sympathetic, but spiked with satire that captures the man in all his crippling self-consciousness . . . Mallon writes with such wit and psychological acuity as he spins this carousel of characters caught in a scandal that's constantly fracturing into new crises."

—Washington Post Book World

RE- PUBLISHED THIS SPRING BY KNOPF/VINTAGE:

"Aurora 7, as unpretentious in size as the spacecraft that bore its name, is vast with insight, charming and provocative—a brave mission of a book to put back the stars in any reader's eyes."—WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

JUST PUBLISHED BY KNOPF:

EXCERPTED IN THE NEW YORKER

"His diaries capture the atmosphere of a city and community reeling from the AIDS crisis and the material optimism of Reagan-era America. His writing stands out for its honesty and authenticity, offering a vivid, personal chronicle of a transformative era."
—Los Angeles Times

"Merging a young gay man's keenly observed coming of age, a lively tour of a bygone literary New York, and a devastating portrait of the city during the height of the AIDS crisis, the diaries capture the creative energy and lasting sorrow of a remarkable era."
—The New Yorker

. . . a real-time threnody to AIDS and its victims, as well as a love letter to a New York where the Runyonesque waitress in the local coffee shop will call him 'Cookie' and a walk can include sightings of Greta Garbo and Jackie Kennedy, The Very Heart of It is also a portrait of an artist . . . Mallon is well aware he's one of the lucky ones and his life's great luck is also ours, his readers."
—Maureen Corrigan, "Fresh Air," National Public Radio

"Compulsively browsable . . . Mallon's diaries paint an arresting panorama of Reagan-era New York City, full of droll character studies . . . Mallon himself comes across as complicated and often prickly, but his prose conveys deep emotion with clear-eyed, matter-of-fact detail. It amounts to an engrossing evocation of an artist and a city in transition."

—Publishers Weekly

While reading THE VERY HEART OF IT, I tried to discipline myself, but suddenly it was 4 AM. Thomas Mallon's diaries, focusing on the 1980s through the early 90s, depict that era with heartbreaking accuracy, from the dread of an AIDS test to the glory of living, on cobbled-together funds, in the social and cultural capital of New York City. His portraits of the rancorous literary scene, political ferment and his hectic love life are witty, original and sinfully entertaining (it's a rare work that travels from Robert Mapplethorpe to Dan Quayle.) Upon reaching the final page all I wanted was more.
—Paul Rudnick

"Illuminating, heartbreaking, hilarious, romantic, terrifying, thrilling, baffling, joyous--such is life! And such are the diaries of our great writer Thomas Mallon, who has preserved in The Very Heart of It one precious moment in time told in his inestimable style. I found myself reading addictively. A world opens up in these pages. What a book!"
—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less and Less Is Lost

NOW IN PAPERBACK FROM KNOPF/VINTAGE:

Through the curious life of Dick Kallman—a real-life celebrity striver, poisonously charming actor, and eventual murder victim—the unforgiving worlds of postwar showbiz and down-low gay sexuality are thrown into stark relief.

"In this funny, vicious tale of ambition and moral corrosion, Thomas Mallon turns his rapier intelligence and seismographic sense of the workings of power to the worlds of Hollywood and Broadway. Among imperishable legends and declining stars, he chronicles desperate competition and half-open secrets, the longing for the next new thing and the lure of the past. Up with the Sun is a novel as stark as a Greek drama and as delicious as gossip."

— Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You

"Thomas Mallon has been America's premier historical novelist for a decade. Up With the Sun cinches the accolade. It's New York City in the aching 80's. The murder of show-biz bottom feeder/monster Dick Kallman and his male lover ramifies throughout the turmoil of the decade — in a stunning hybrid of Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities and frontline reports from a beleaguered gay demimonde. This book packs period pizzazz and heartbreaking intimacy. And, as always with Mallon — it's a page-turning blast."

— James Ellroy

"Dazzling"

—NPR

"Hypnotically readable"

—The Wall Street Journal

THOMAS MALLON

novelist and critic

JUST PUBLISHED-—SPANISH TRANSLATION OF FELLOW TRAVELERS