Ross and Tom: Two American Tragedies

Rating:
Summary: Two Literary Tragedies
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Two Literary Tragedies
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A biography that has stayed with me for 20 years
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A biography that has stayed with me for 20 years
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: DISTORTED - SEE THE ALTERNATE VERSION
Review: 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.