by Andrew Wilson (Author)
Harold Robbins, the godfather of the airport novel pulsating with sex and glamour, changed the face of publishing with classics such as "The Carpetbaggers", "The Dream Merchants" and "The Lonely Lady". His readers loved his steamy tales of money, soft porn, drugs, corruption, greed and, just sometimes, redemption, while his fans included Pablo Picasso, Mario Puzo, James Baldwin, Jackie Collins, Sidney Sheldon and Camille Paglia.In his lifetime, his book sales exceeded 750 million, and he became as much a part of the sexual and social revolution as the Pill, "Playboy" and pot. Responsible for the whole new genre of commercial publishing, Harold Robbins unintentionally spawned the careers of writers such as Jacqueline Susann, Judith Krantz and Shirley Conran. The world's first playboy writer, he reportedly frittered away $50 million on fast cars, loose women and high living. Obsessed with fame and fortune, Harold Robbins was a deeply complex and often controversial man; a constant master of self-invention, even his closest friends and lovers could only guess at the past of the man behind the perma-tanned mask and gigantic mirrored sunglasses.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Edition: 1st edition, 1st impression
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 22 Oct 2007
ISBN 10: 0747592659
ISBN 13: 9780747592655
Book Overview: Like Robbins' best fiction, his biography is filled with steamy tales of sex, money, corruption, greed, and redemption Major publicity attention guaranteed - this is the definitive book on an intriguing and misunderstood literary talent, whose fans included Ford Madox Ford, James Baldwin, John Steinbeck, Philip Roth and Norman Mailer Andrew Wilson's biography of Patricia Highsmith received rave reviews and won the Edgar Allan Poe award for best biography