Skip to product information
1 of 1

Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures: A Biography of Denis Johnson

Contributors:

Ted Geltner (Author)

Contributors: Ted Geltner (Author)

Regular price $21.38 USD
Regular price $22.50 USD Sale price $21.38 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Format
Inventory
In stock

BISAC categories: Biography & Autobiography -> Literary Figures ->

BISAC categories: Biography & Autobiography -> Editors, Journalists, Publishers ->

View full details

Product Description

The year was 1988, and Denis Johnson was at a low point. He caught malaria on a reporting trip into the jungles of the Philippines and was nearly pronounced dead. The disease left him unable to write. His second wife left him. He didn't have enough money to pay his taxes. His publisher was waiting for a book that he hadn't started. But in the life of Denis Johnson, when things were at their bleakest, something good was usually waiting around the next corner. This time, what emerged from the chaos was his masterpiece Jesus' Son, a book that would tap into the zeitgeist of the 1990s and become a bible for Generation X and an American classic.

Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures tells the complete story of Johnson's fascinating life, his thrill-seeking trips into war zones as a magazine correspondent, his battles with addiction, his live-it-before-you-write-it style of fiction. It follows the arc of his tremendous body of work as a novelist, journalist, poet, and playwright, and in the process recovers the true stories from the hazy myths that one of our most beloved, yet enigmatic, writers left behind.

ISBN-10: 1685970370
ISBN-13: 9781685970376
Author: Geltner, Ted
Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781685970376

ISBN-10: 1685970370

Publish Date: November 11, 2025

On Sale Date: January 1, 0001

Language: English

Pages: 368

Dimensions: 8.98 × 5.98 × 1.18 in

Weight: 1.36 lbs

Product Reviews