A Kind of Magic

Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Ferber's fascinating second autobiography—a follow-up to her first, A Peculiar Treasure—in which she shares the adventures of her life from 1939 to 1963.

Rather than just an autobiography, A Kind of Magic serves as a chronicle of American history from 1939-1963 through the eyes of a highly skilled and sensitive observer. A fan of the fine arts, Ferber offers intimate glimpses into the personalities of performers from James Dean to George S. Kaufman, and goes on to share her uncanny knack for having been consistently where the news of the day was breaking. She was in Washington the day President Roosevelt died, in London when the 8th Air Force launched its first long-range daylight raids, at Buchenwald and Nordhausen shortly after their liberation, and—more happily—in Paris on V.E. Day and in New York on V.J. Day. In these pages she recaptures that black-and-white insanity of that war and all wars, as well as the stifling, post-war complecency which gripped America at the time.

"An extraordinary writer's saga. . . . A companion volume to A Peculiar Treasure, this too is autobiography, but it is the biography of the writer rather than the woman. The writer in the world in which she was placed, a tortured world, dictator-ridden, war torn. . . . Much that she has to say about gathering her material, about the exigencies of the writing profession, might well be made required reading for young aspirants." —Kirkus Reviews