Time to Be in Earnest (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: P. D. James
- First Published: 2000
- Type of Work: Autobiography and diaries
- Time of Work: 1920-1998
- Setting: England and the United States
- Principal Characters: P. D. James
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Diary
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Authors or writers, 1940’s, Writing, 1920’s, 1930’s, 1980’s, Novelists, 1990’s, England
- Locales: United States, England
Unlike many authors, British novelist P. D. James has been neither a diarist nor an inveterate letter writer, and she regularly discourages potential biographers, but on August 3, 1997, her seventy-seventh birthday, this doyenne of modern mystery writers started keeping a record of the ensuing year. She was inspired by Samuel Johnson’s dictum that “at seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest” as well as her desire to preserve “just one year that otherwise might be lost, not only to children and grandchildren who might have an interest but, with the advance of age and perhaps...
[The entire page is 2216 words long]
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