The Candy Men: The Rollicking Life and Times of the Notorious Novel Candy

(Paperback)

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Description

In the early fall of 1958, the notorious Olympia Press in Paris published a novel entitled "Candy," an erotic, Rabelaisian satire loosely based on Voltaire's "Candide" by one Maxwell Kenton, pseudonym of its coauthors, Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. The novel drew the attention of the French censors, was banned, reissued by Olympia's intrepidpublisher under the title "Lollipop," re-banned, then again reissued.

Reviews

The touchstone of Nile Southerns compilation lies half-hidden in the deliciously disgusting correspondence between its disreputable heroes, who come shifting off the page in hipster mode just as, years ago, they leaned out of the shadows of the Dme in Montparnasse. Old poops, puritans, and the politically correct may choke on indignation and outraged sensibilities, but the rest of us must laugh along with these anarchic voices. Such wild metaphors and riffs of fervid imagination, daring to celebrate our frailties and folly, are the stuff of literature and life. Peter Matthiessen

"Thoroughly enjoyable . . . a highly successful example of an underexploited genre, the biography of a book." New York Times

In a magnificent epistolary style . . . offers valuable insight into the Beat scenes of Paris and New York, as well as into the publishing world [and] . . . the lives and minds of two wildly creative literary characters: the authors themselves.Publishers Weekly

"At times more fascinating and readable than the original novel . . . An important chapter in the history of popular culture and a worthy second look at one of the . . . masterpieces of erotic literature." Booklist
The touchstone of Nile Southerns compilation lies half-hidden in the deliciously disgusting correspondence between its disreputable heroes, who come shifting off the page in hipster mode just as, years ago, they leaned out of the shadows of the Dme in Montparnasse. Old poops, puritans, and the politically correct may choke on indignation and outraged sensibilities, but the rest of us must laugh along with these anarchic voices. Such wild metaphors and riffs of fervid imagination, daring to celebrate our frailties and folly, are the stuff of literature and life. Peter Matthiessen

"Thoroughly enjoyable . . . a highly successful example of an underexploited genre, the biography of a book." New York Times

In a magnificent epistolary style . . . offers valuable insight into the Beat scenes of Paris and New York, as well as into the publishing world [and] . . . the lives and minds of two wildly creative literary characters: the authors themselves.Publishers Weekly

"At times more fascinating and readable than the original novel . . . An important chapter in the history of popular culture and a worthy second look at one of the . . . masterpieces of erotic literature." Booklist

Author Bio

Nile Southern is the coeditor of Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern, 19501995 and is working on a biography of his father. He lives with his wife and children in Longmont, Colorado.