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Ross and Tom: Two American Tragedies (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Taking my life is inconceivable to me..." (more)
Key Phrases: dream section, club judges, publication day, Raintree County, Carol Lynn, New York (more...)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Price:	$21.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published August 25, 1974	Hardcover	--	$18.50	$0.23
Paperback $21.00 In Stock. Published August 31, 2000	Paperback	$21.00	$4.94	$0.36
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great book." -- Leon Edel

"A thoroughly absorbing and finally most moving chronicle of what two best-selling authors did and suffered in homage to what William James called the American bitch goddess--the success business." -- Alfred Kazin

"Enthralling...ought to be read by all editors, publishers, writers, and critics and by the general reading public...the best case-history account of the writing profession in America." -- James A. Michener

Product Description

Here, at last back in print, is the classic dual biography of Ross Lockridge and Thomas Heggen, two authors who achieved sudden fame and fortune and then self-destructed. Ross Lockridge, the author of the spectacularly best-selling Raintree County, and Thomas Heggen, the creator of Mister Roberts, both were thrust in the 1940s into unexpected fame and money. Each was young and inexperienced in the ways of the world. John Leggett explores their lives, their loves, their friendships, and their writing and publishing experiences to discover what ultimately and tragically failed them. Ross and Tom portrays two gifted writers and their final descent into that Fitzgeraldian crack-up where "in the real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning."

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Product Details

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 1, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0306809923
ISBN-13: 978-0306809927
Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,562,609 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's John Leggett Page

Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Taking my life is inconceivable to me. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dream section, club judges, publication day

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Raintree County, Carol Lynn, New York, Paul Brooks, Houghton Mifflin, Dorothy Hillyer, Joshua Logan, Carol Brandt, Steve Tryon, Leland Hayward, Ross Lockridge, Tom Heggen, Larry Wylie, Frank Lockridge, Martin Stone, Helen Parker, Jeff Wylie, Max Shulman, Oklahoma City, Park Street, Christian Science, Chuck Roberts, Diggory Venn, Peter Cary, South Pacific

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Concordance | Text Stats

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Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 50 books:

Mister Roberts (Classics of Naval Literature) by Thomas Heggen on 34 pages
Raintree County by Ross Lockridge on 20 pages
Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward on 5 pages
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway on page 253, page 381, and page 385
Mr. Roberts by Thomas Heggen on page 384, and Back Matter

See all 50 books this book cites

7 books cite this book:

On Writer's Block by Victoria Nelson on page 63, and Back Matter
No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society by Richard Maxwell Brown in Back Matter
Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious (Banner Book) by Emily Toth on page 229
Daredevil Twilight by Virginia Barton Brownback in Front Matter
A Daring Young Man: A Biography of William Saroyan by John Leggett in Front Matter

See all 7 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	63% buy the item featured on this page: Ross and Tom: Two American Tragedies 4.0 out of 5 stars (3) $21.00
	19% buy Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr. 4.2 out of 5 stars (6)
	17% buy Raintree County 4.9 out of 5 stars (23) $13.57
	1% buy House Divided 4.8 out of 5 stars (17) $18.21

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Literary Tragedies, May 6, 2004

By	Peter L. Winkler "Word King" (North Hollywood, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Before "narrative nonfiction" became a buzzword in publishing, John Leggett wrote this superb dual biography of Ross Lockridge and Tom Heggen, both of whom experienced fantastic early success which they couldn't follow, leading to depression and suicide. Although Lockridge's son Larry has recently published his biography of his father with an understandable mission to correct what he sees as failings in Leggett's book, I think Lockridge gives us far too much detail and insufficient drama.

Leggett's book is tremendously readable, like a great novel, yet grounded in fact all the way. I only have one caveat, which is Leggett's attempt to interpret both writers' lives and deaths within some Freudian framework, but this is only done briefly and doesn't damage the book greatly. I've read Ross and Tom several times in the twenty odd years since I first bought a used hardcover edition, and it is a great book.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A biography that has stayed with me for 20 years, November 10, 2003

By	Robin Wolaner (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have treasured the hardcover of this book since it came out. If you are interested in the lives of writers, or the price of early success, or just in a brilliant biography, you should read this book.

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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars DISTORTED - SEE THE ALTERNATE VERSION, March 5, 2004

By	Donald A. Newlove (Greenwich Village) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Readers of ROSS AND TOM should read Ross Lockridge, Jr.'s son Larry Lockridge's version of his father's mental illness that led to his suicide. That's called SHADE OF THE RAINTREE and is both a compelling biography as well as an insightful review of what we knew about depression in the 1940s and what we know about it today. I've read both of these books, as well as RAINTREE COUNTY, which for me is a great American novel whose day will return. I find Legget's version of this wondrous author as distorted as a funhouse mirror.

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