Out with the Stars
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Following the discovery of an anonymous libretto, Abner Blossom comes out of retirement to write an opera based on the life of infamous novelist-turned-photographer Cyril Vane. But those who knew Vane and his Russian-born wife, the silent-screen star Madame Olga Petrovna, are prepared to go to any length to suppress the truth about them. Vane’s dark secret follows him to the grave. But his jealous and vengeful widow and her faded cronies employ all the means at their disposal to prevent the opening of Blossom’s opera. Out with the Stars is peopled by the Gothic characters readers of James Purdy have come to anticipate and relish, from Val Sturgis, Kentucky boy made good and now Blossom’s protégé to Francis X. Beauregard, aging star of the silver screen now living surrounded by streetwise hustlers in his Brooklyn mansion.
Back in print for the first time since 1993, Purdy’s flamboyant tale of New York City’s pre-Stonewall bohemia includes an incisive Foreword by Robert J. Corber, placing the work within its rich social and cultural context.
James Purdy was out of category, out of this world, and, hence, often out of print. He was also, without question, one of the most original American writers of the twentieth century.—Fran Lebowitz
One of the most undervalued and underread writers in America.—Jonathan Franzen
James Purdy's characters and situations linger in the memory.—Langston Hughes
[Purdy’s] style is impulsive and prodding, uniquely his own, and uniquely haunting.—Jonathan Lethem
An authentic American Genius.—Gore Vidal
A writer of the highest rank in originality, insight and power.—Dorothy Parker
"Anything Purdy writes is a literary event of importance."—Susan Sontag
One of the very best writers we have.—New York Times Book Review
In his very best stories and novels Purdy has invented a poetic dreamscape where evil and naiveté collide. He is an enchanter of lost souls who delights and disturbs us with his wayward, winsome ghosts.—Jerome Charyn, Daily Beast
Highly successful, suspended from the high ceiling of Purdy’s prime, like a dazzling chandelier. Purdy has certainly never been funnier, his writing never more self-assured.—Times Literary Supplement
A well-established maverick who can still find room in his fiction for the truly bizarre and unpredictable. There is certainly fun to be had in this convoluted story with prose of crystalline beauty.—London Review of Books
James Purdy (1914–2009) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who published more than a dozen novels, including Malcolm and Eustace Chisholm and the Works, as well as many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into many languages. In 2013, his short stories were collected in The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy.
Robert J. Corber (Foreword By)
Robert J. Corber is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in American Institutions and Values at Trinity College. He is the author and editor of several books including, most recently, Cold War Femme: Lesbianism, National Identity, and Hollywood Cinema.
