Brian Howard, Portrait of a Failure
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Lancaster, Marie-Jacqueline (ed.). Brian Howard, Portrait of a Failure. First Edition. 1968. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition—jacket shows a minor tear to the upper spine. Introduction by Maurice Richardson.
The title is something of a misnomer, because if Howard was a failure, he was a splendid one. If Michael Arlen was the English F. Scott Fitzgerald, then Howard was the U.K. counterpart to Truman Capote. Of all of London’s Bright Young Things, Brian Howard’s flame burned the mostly brightly, and it flamed out quickly. He showed enormous talent as a writer early on, and then was destroyed by drugs, alcohol and himself. The supporting characters include Edith Sitwell, Harold and William Acton, W.H. Auden, Heywood Hill, Christopher Isherwood, Oliver Messel, Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh (Waugh based the character of Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited upon Brian Howard), et al.
“That true happiness does not depend upon outward circumstances. I find this an odd attitude, really. It assumes such a godlike independence of environment.”
--Brian Howard
The title is something of a misnomer, because if Howard was a failure, he was a splendid one. If Michael Arlen was the English F. Scott Fitzgerald, then Howard was the U.K. counterpart to Truman Capote. Of all of London’s Bright Young Things, Brian Howard’s flame burned the mostly brightly, and it flamed out quickly. He showed enormous talent as a writer early on, and then was destroyed by drugs, alcohol and himself. The supporting characters include Edith Sitwell, Harold and William Acton, W.H. Auden, Heywood Hill, Christopher Isherwood, Oliver Messel, Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh (Waugh based the character of Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited upon Brian Howard), et al.
“That true happiness does not depend upon outward circumstances. I find this an odd attitude, really. It assumes such a godlike independence of environment.”
--Brian Howard
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