The Late Risers

by Bernard Wolfe

Everything happens at night

Here is Bernard Wolfe's racy, raucous, revealing novel about Broadway sharpies—the movie idols, TV stars, press agents, call girls, drug pushers, gossip columnists, aspiring actresses—who live by their wits in the frenzied little island around Forty-second and Broadway. . . .

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Bernard Wolfe studied at Yale, taught at Bryn Mawr, served in the Merchant Marine, edited Paramount Newsreel, wrote Really the Blues with "Mezz" Mezzrow, and did a publicity stint on Broadway.

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book for me. The style kind of reminded me of Peter DeVries. This would bear reading again someday as it seems like the sort of book that is probably more complex than it seems. It had vulgar bits but wasn't prurient, and although it contained writing about writing, it wasn't one of those self-conscious meta-books in which the book you are reading is the book the character is writing and your mind is supposed to be all blown but isn't quite.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much overlooked early beatnik novel which follows denizens of Times Square over a period of seventeen hours. republished in paperback as Everything Happens at Night.