Book description
Ezra Pound referred to 1922 as Year One of a new era. It was the year
in which a skinny, shabby Irishman and a natty, quietly sinister
American entered the cultural landscape, hell-bent on exploding
everything that realistic fiction and Georgian poetry held dear. It
was the year which began with the publication of Ulysses and
ended with the publication of The Waste Land: the most
influential English-language novel and poem of the century. Despite
several revolutions in taste, these two works remain the twin towers
at the beginning of modern literature; some would say, of modernity
itself. And it was the generous, indefatigable, discerning Ezra Pound
who played a significant part in the launch of both writers' careers.
Constellation of Genius puts the accomplishments of Eliot and
Joyce in the context of the world in which their works appeared - a
year of remarkable firsts, births, and foundations. The passing of an
old world: the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the end of British
Liberalism with the crushing defeat by the Conservatives at the
General Election, the thwarting of Marcus Garvey's dreams for a new
Africa. Dada was put to rest, Proust died and Hollywood transformed
the nature of fame, making Charlie Chaplin the most recognisable man
on the planet. Hitchcock directed his first feature, Kandinsky and
Klee joined the Bauhaus and Louis Armstrong took the train from New
Orleans to Chicago, heralding the beginning of modern jazz.
Gloriously entertaining, erudite and idiosyncratic, this is a
biography of a year, a journey through the diaries of the
anthropologists, actors, artists, dancers, designers, film-makers,
philosophers, playwrights, politicians and scientists whose lives and
works collided over twelve months, creating a frenzy of innovation
which broke the world in two.
Kevin Jackson has written thousands of articles, primarily on film,
photography, modern art, literature and cultural history for, among
others,
The New Yorker
,
Granta
,
Prospect
,
Sunday Times
,
Sunday Telegraph
,
Guardian
,
Evening Standard
and
Vogue
. He has been a script editor and script consultant, lectured and taught
at the National Film Theatre, the Royal College of Art and the Victoria
and Albert Musuem, presented documentaries for Radio 3 and Radio 4,
directed and produced films for television, written the book and lyrics
for a rock opera, curated film seasons and a photography exhibition as
well as authored and edited more than twenty books.
