Some Time in the Sun: The Hollywood Years of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Nathanael West, Aldous Huxley and James Agee

by Tom Dardis

A group of resourceful kids start "solution-seekers.com," a website where "cybervisitors" can get answers to questions that trouble them. But when one questioner asks the true meaning of Christmas, the kids seek to unravel the mystery by journeying back through the prophecies of the Old Testament. What they find is a series of "S" words that reveal a "spectacular story!" With creative characters, humorous dialogue and great music, The "S" Files is a children's Christmas musical your kids will love performing.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History, Criticism, Biography

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1975

Reviews

[Sepehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب بسیار جالب و البته کمیاب که یکبار در سال هفتاد نشر شیوا منتشرش کرده، نشری که بعنوان مثال برای اولین بار خانواده پاسکوآل دوآرته با ترجمه غبرایی در اون منتشر شد و جزو نشرهای کوچک آینده‌داری بود که به کلی محو شد. طراحی روی جلدش هم کار مرتضی ممیز هست.
این کتاب به دورانی میپردازه که فاکنر در هالیوود مشغول فیلمنامه نویسی برای استودیوهای فیلمسازی بود.
فاکنر همواره از این کار عذاب می‌کشید ولی بخاطر مسائل مالی مجبور بود مدام به هالیوود برگرده.
فاکنر فیلمنامه‌های زیادی نوشت هرچند همیشه معتقد بود فیلمنامه نویس بدیه و به کارش هیچ اعتقادی نداشت. در ضمن اکثرا فیلمنامه‌های فاکنر به مرحله تولید نمی‌رسید یا اگر می‌رسید، نام فاکنر در تیتراژ آورده نمی‌شد.
با این حال دو تا از بهترین فیلمنامه‌ها از بهترین فیلم‌های تاریخ سینما یعنی داشتن و نداشتن و خواب ابدی که هر دو رو هاوارد هاکس بزرگ کارگردانی کرده، فاکنر نوشت و اسمش هم ذکر شد.
این کتاب به عادات، استیصال‌ها و خاطرات جالب فاکنر در آن روزها میپردازه. هرچند فکر می‌کنم چنین کتابی به شکل مستقل وجود نداره و تام داردیس در کتابش به فیتزجرالد و هاکسلی و ... هم می پردازه ولی مترجم فارسی فقط بخش فاکنر رو ترجمه کرده.

[T Fool · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dardis applies a scholarly eye to a small corner where well-known authors spent a bit of time and -- it could be concluded from this book -- yielded not their best work. Really instructive for those who wish to be writers like 'the great ones'. 1) It's unlikely you'll make money doing your best work; and 2) It's not easy to meet lesser demands.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this book still in print? It should be. It's a classic study of novelists who came to Hollywood to work. Most hate it, but it's interesting that Hollywood brought the greatest artists to live and work here. Most failed, but alas the girls are pretty in Los Angeles!

[David Sheward · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Bought at a used-book store in upstate NY for 50 cents.) Tom Dardis' scholarly study of five distinguished authors who tried their hand at screenwriting during Hollywood's Golden Age is informative if a trifle dry. There's little juice in his chronicling of the quintet's struggles with studio bosses, directors, and, in some cases, alcoholism and depression. It's a scholarly book and also a study of the conflict between art and commerce. All of the authors, to one degree or another, were dependent on their movie money for survival. It's somewhat astonishing to read that literary giants like Fitzgerald and Faulkner had to scramble for cinema dollars in order to pay their bills because the sales of their books, now regarded as classics, were so meager. Though Dardis offers plentiful details such as salary figures and specific studio assignments, he misses the essence of his subjects. I didn't feel I knew any of them any better once I'd finished the book.

[Gary Seigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good portrait of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on five novelists who also wrote screenplays. Dardis relies too often on what he assumes the reader would have read in other books. He'll gloss over one story and then spend some time telling another. Still, there's enough here that gave me a glimpse into the lives of these writers, especially Faulkner.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last section of this book looks at James Agee's life and work after he's completed LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. A singular talent, Agee didn't live long enough to become a director.-- Spoiler Alert: Did you know that Agee wrote AFRICAN QUEEN? I appreciated getting a personal look at Agee's life. I look forward to reading both volumes of AGEE ON FILM. to round out my appreciation for him.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Dardis, writer of a superb biography on Buster Keaton has
produced a fascinating book about a group of very diverse writers
whose common ground was that they all turned to Hollywood for
"some time in the sun".
F. Scott Fitzgerald failed spectacularly and it was often depicted
as his grimmest hour but Anthony Powell painted a different picture
of him - describing a joyous enthusiasm and healthy curiosity
about things and people. Apparently that observation was made on
the day he first met Sheilah Graham.
William Faulkner found a working soul mate in Howard Hawks and
they formed a partnership with a similar work ethic on films like
"The Road to Glory", "To Have and Have Not" and "The Big Sleep".
Nathanael West of "Day of the Locust" fame probably had the happiest
Hollywood experience - he was content to slog away for minor studio
Republic. He married Eileen McKenny, the Eileen of "My Sister Eileen"
fame and until his early death it was a case of opposites attracting.
Surprisingly the one writer who embraced Hollywood was Aldous
Huxley. Originally he and his wife arrived in America in 1937 and giving themselves a year, they were to live nearly the rest of their lives in Southern California. Years before, Huxley had struck up a correspondence with Anita Loos (she of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" no less) so that by the time they arrived they had an introduction to Hollywood's upper crust. Huxley as well didn't have the typical writer's "angst", being mild mannered and popular and just as eager as anyone to find out about the latest Hollywood fad.
James Agee was "the man who loved the movies", an incisive critic
who was not frightened to hold beloved films up to ridicule while
championing and giving rare insights into lesser thought of films
(he was about the only critic to praise Chaplin's much maligned
"Monsieur Verdoux"). He came to Hollywood to collaborate with John
Huston on "The African Queen". He was also a Stephen Crane
enthusiast and wrote a screenplay for "The Blue Hotel" (what a
powerful film that would have been but unfortunately was never made)
and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (which was). Unfortunately he
had already suffered several heart attacks and would eventually die
from one in the mid 1950s.
This book also has some wonderful candid photos of each writer -
you'll never view William Faulkner in quite the same way again!!

[Garry Evens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of the book concerns Fitzgerald and Faulkner, with West, Huxley, and Agee filling up the rest with about 30-40 pages each. The result feels incomplete.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This chronicle of the time several authors spent working on screenplays in Hollywood during the early days of film and into the 1950s is broken into 5 sections. It covers F.Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Nathaniel West, Aldous Huxley, and James Agee. It is pretty scatter shot in its time line regarding most of these men and reads more like a broken up news report on their daily activities toiling away in a Land of Making Make Believe. The saddest part of this telling is learning how these novelists made so little money from their novel writing and the royalties that followed the publication. They really made very little and eventually, mostly with reluctance, took screenwriting positions at the major studios or, in some cases, like West, at some pretty low paying backlots. The best part of this short book is the words on Fitzgerald and Faulkner and how they lived nearly in near bankruptcy and tried to hide from reality through the fog of health crippling alcohol. An interesting, yet, meandering and somewhat uninvolving book.

[Robert Lieberman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's startling to read that such literary greats as Fitzgerald and Faulkner were often flat broke and worked in Hollywood out of desparation.This is all laid out in great detail in this readable and cohesive book.Dardis is understanding of these writers faults and foibles,and especially seems to favor Agee.If there is anything lacking in the book,it's that I don't sense a great love of film,just more of an interest.

[Dottie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The goings on among the group and the ambience of the era come through and draw one in completely! What a group. What a time. And what amazing things transpired amidst the glamour of the Hollywood age addressed herein.

[Phillip Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, what a good book. My copy is an old Scribner's hardback edition that I found. This edition (1976) has photos of the writers. I don't know if the recent editions do. What a treat it was to read about these 20th-century masters.