One of America's most original and dynamic writers, James Purdy has always been regarded as something of an outsider. He achieved international recognition before being somewhat grudgingly recognized by American critics, and he has continued to attract more critical attention outside his home country than within it. This circumstance is due partially to the attack on middle-class American values that his work undertakes and partially to his willingness to delve deeper into the dark spaces of the human soul than most other American writers.

Purdy's work has been translated into more than two dozen languages. John Cowper Powys declared him "the best kind of original genius of our day. His insight into the diabolical cruelties and horrors that lurk all the time under our conventional skin is as startling as his insight into the angelic tenderness and protectiveness that also exist in the same hiding place." Gore Vidal...