161:"Whether such adventures ever happened to any one man, or whether, as seems far more likely, the author has supplemented certain experiences of his own by a rich imagination, using as its basis information gathered through wide reading, is immaterial. For this is actually a quiet, meditative book into which adventurous episodes have been introduced simply as a device for displaing various aspects of the Asiatic mind and spirit. It is the work of a man of a deeply poetic nature possessed of an astonishing ability to describe in a few words a color, a scene, an odor, an emotional situation, an attitude of mind, an idea; words so well chosen that passage after passage seems perfectly to express some truth that we have many times, in a stumbling way, attempted to state.
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me could ever more than scratch the surface. All the facts in Who’s Who, or whatever, are so utterly meaningless. My real life (if I ever dared to write it!) has transpired in darkness, secrecy, fleeting contacts and incommunicable delights, any number of strange picaresque escapades and even crimes, and I don't think that any of my 'friends' have even the faintest notion of what I'm really like or have any idea of what my life has really consisted of. . . .With all the surface 'respectability,' diplomatic and scholarly and illustrious social contacts, my real life has been subversive, anarchic, vicious, lonely, and capricious."
145:, "Prokosch has invented what might be called the geographical novel, in which he mingles sensuality with irony, lucidity with mystery. He conveys a fatalistic sense of life half hidden beneath a rich animal energy. He is a master of moods and undertones, a virtuoso in the feeling of place, and he writes in a style of supple elegance."
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received widespread attention in the 1930s. The action in both of these narratives takes place in Asia, a continent
Prokosch had not visited but wrote about from his imagination and from books and maps. Landscape descriptions are so prevalent that the landscape often takes on the role of a character
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From early on, Prokosch sought to surround himself with a veil of mystification and cast his life into a hopeless riddle. Approaching his sixtieth year, he boasted that no person had succeeded in knowing him as an integral personality: "I have spent my life alone, utterly alone, and no biography of
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In singing, supple prose, with an evocative power strange to our earthbound ears, with passion and often with fury, Frederic
Prokosch takes us off to the vast, mysterious reaches of Central Asia. It is a weird adventure of the spirit on which he leads us. For, mistake not, despite the apparently
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realistic description of the endless reaches of the desert, of the topless towers of the snow-capped mountains, of the huddling villages in which men rot away in poverty and disease, this
Central Asia of Prokosch's is not actual place upon the face of the earth. Like
202:, it is a phantom manufactured by a restless mind. ...Whatever the meaning of this book, and there will be much debate on that score, its wild lyrinative splendor and its profound emotional content mark it as a memorable novel.
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After the 1930s, popular interest in
Prokosch's writing declined, but he continued to write steadily and to solidify his reputation as a writer’s writer with an elite following that included
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Strauss, Harold (August 29, 1937), "A Strange and
Haunting Tale Set in Central Asia; Frederic Prokosch, in 'The Seven Who Fled,' Writes a Memorable Novel of Spiritual Adventure",
258:, “that he is himself in a way at fault for being so woefully neglected. He has not cared to husband his natural riches... His roots are in this land. If Prokosch, like
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in 1983, advertised as a record of his encounters with some of the century's leading artists and writers, returned
Prokosch to the limelight. His early novels
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22:(May 17, 1906 – June 2, 1989) was an American writer, known for his novels, poetry, memoirs and criticism. He was also a distinguished translator.
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527:
Frederic
Prokosch, letter to Radcliffe Squires, 17 June , Special Collections, Washington University Libraries, St. Louis. See also Greenfield,
262:, had limited his creative energies to one milieu, one region, he would certainly be counted today among the pillars of American literature.”
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by the French government in 1984 and awarded the
Volterra Prize two years later. His novels have been translated into 15 languages.
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Frederic
Prokosch, ein Romantiker des 20. Jahrhunderts: Mit bes. BerĂĽcks. d. Romane "The Asiatics" u. "The Seven Who Fled"
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was shown to be almost wholly fictitious and part of an enormous hoax. Prokosch died in Le Plan-de-Grasse, an area of
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in the 1937 New York State squash racquets championship. He won the squash-racquets championship of France in 1938.
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269:(1946), a sophisticated story about a circle of aesthetes and socialites in New York City through the war years;
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in 1925 and received a Ph.D. in
English in 1932 from Yale University. In his youth, he was an accomplished
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and his brother Walther Prokosch was a distinguished architect. Prokosch was graduated from
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The Butterfly Books: an Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Twentieth Century Pamphlets
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Titterton, L. H. (October 27, 1935), "A Glowing Evocation of the Asian Way of Life",
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Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
289:(1972), an excursion into magical realism. Prokosch was named a Commander in the
281:(1966), a realistic and poetic story of nine people castaway on a savage island;
254:. “Pondering about Prokosch and his fate, I have come to the conclusion,” wrote
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During World War II, Prokosch was a cultural attaché at the American Legation in
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430:(1960), novel by Philip Van Rensselaer and Frederic Prokosch, uncredited author
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73:. He spent most of the remainder of his life in Europe, where he led a
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Editors (January 16, 1937), "Adams Turns back Foulke in 5 games",
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Editors (August 12, 1938) "Prokosch of Yale Is Killed in Crash",
89:, and the printing of limited editions of poems that he admired.
34:, into an intellectual family that travelled widely. His father,
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Among the most noteworthy of Prokosch’s latter-day writings are
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Singer, Isaac Bashevis, "On the Courage to be Old-Fashioned,"
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Dreamer's Journey: The Life and Writings of Frederic Prokosch
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Dreamer’s Journey: The Life and Writings of Frederic Prokosch
424:(1958), novel, written under the pseudonym of "Teresa Brooke"
492:(Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2010), p. 17, 400.
657:, an account of Prokosch's forgeries of his own work.
273:(1953), a dreamlike journey into the Arabian world;
285:(1968), a “meditation” on the romantic artist; and
277:(1955), a Gothicized retelling of the Cenci story;
42:immigrant, was Professor of Germanic Languages at
108:were reissued to much public acclaim. In 2010,
596:, January 14, 1968, p. 6. See also Greenfield,
46:at the time of his death in 1938, his sister
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655:"Frederic Prokosch and the Butterfly Books"
633:Vidal, Gore (2000), "The Collector", in
661:Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
644:. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
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77:existence. His interests were sports (
7:
544:, "Disembodied Voices", pp. 376-390.
693:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
557:, p. 42. See also note 16, p. 409.
372:(1947, in the United States), poems
153:critic L. H. Titterton wrote about
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635:The Last Empire (Essays 1952–2000)
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748:American male non-fiction writers
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472:(1984), fictional, autobiography
703:20th-century American novelists
640:Greenfield, Robert M. (2010),
616:. New York: Twayne Publishers.
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667:Frederic Prokosch Collection.
50:was a dancer and a prominent
718:American racquetball players
169:, Harold Strauss said about
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623:. Winterthur: Schellenberg.
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347:(1943), novel (made into a
62:player; he represented the
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458:The Missolonghi Manuscript
452:The Wreck of the Cassandra
283:The Missolonghi Manuscript
279:The Wreck of the Cassandra
753:Memoirists from Wisconsin
428:Mother Was Always in Love
291:Ordre des Arts et Lettres
626:Barker, Nicolas (1987),
48:Gertrude Prokosch Kurath
733:American male novelists
630:. London: Bertram Rota.
713:Yale University alumni
708:Writers from Wisconsin
464:America, My Wilderness
349:movie of the same name
287:America, My Wilderness
422:Under the Winter Moon
382:The Idols of the Cave
267:The Idols of the Cave
256:Isaac Bashevis Singer
30:Prokosch was born in
404:Nine days to Mukalla
357:Friedrich Hoelderlin
271:Nine Days to Mukalla
738:American male poets
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488:Robert Greenfield,
416:A Tale for Midnight
339:The Skies of Europe
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137:in its own right.
96:The publication of
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568:The New York Times
516:The New York Times
503:The New York Times
394:(1947), translator
360:(1943), translator
315:The Seven Who Fled
171:The Seven Who Fled
167:The New York Times
150:The New York Times
143:The Seven Who Fled
134:The Seven Who Fled
128:Prokosch's novels
106:The Seven Who Fled
32:Madison, Wisconsin
614:Frederic Prokosch
598:Dreamer's Journey
555:Dreamer’s Journey
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327:Night of the Poor
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688:1989 deaths
683:1906 births
388:Louise Labé
208:Thomas Mann
165:Writing in
141:said about
87:lepidoptery
75:peripatetic
677:Categories
637:. Vintage.
594:Book World
477:References
252:T.S. Eliot
248:Gore Vidal
212:André Gide
570:, p. BR3.
410:Fire Song
200:Poictesme
64:Yale Club
26:Biography
600:, p. 19.
583:, p. 81.
531:, p. 17.
518:, p. 23.
505:, p. 17.
351:in 1944)
260:Faulkner
192:Atlantis
40:Austrian
190:, like
188:Arcadia
186:, like
250:, and
184:Xanadu
118:France
114:Grasse
110:Voices
83:squash
79:tennis
71:Sweden
297:Works
38:, an
132:and
104:and
85:),
81:and
198:or
196:Aea
194:or
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