My Father and Myself (New York Review of Books Classics Series) by J.R. Ackerley, W. H. Auden (Introduction)

From the Publisher

When his father died, J. R. Ackerley was shocked to discover that he had led a secret life. And after Ackerley himself died, he left a surprise of his own--this coolly considered, unsparingly honest account of his quest to find out the whole truth about the man who had always eluded him in life. But Ackerley's pursuit of his father is also an exploration of the self, making My Father and Myself a pioneering record, at once sexually explicit and emotionally charged, of life as a gay man. This witty, sorrowful, and beautiful book is a classic of twentieth-century memoir.

Times Literary Supplement - John Stokes

It is not hard to see why the books of J.R. Ackerley should now seem worth reprinting...In every respect we are at the ideal historical distance to view him as both within and ahead of his time.

What People Are Saying

Emma Tennant
Emma Tennant, British Vogue

It makes today's memoirs look pallid.

Donald Windham
J.R. Ackerley's humor is unique; his truth is stranger - and funnier - than fiction. My Father and Myself is a cross between Dickens' David Copperfield, Rousseau's Confessions, and The New Pornagraphy. Donald Windham

Product Details