Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors

Andrew Shaffer's Literary Rogues is an unflinching look at the bad behavior of some of our most beloved authors, from Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, to Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to Hunter S. Thompson and Bret Easton Ellis.

Literary Rogues is a wildly funny and illuminating history and analysis of the bad boys and girls of lit, from the author of Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love

Part nostalgia, part serious history of Western literary movements, Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors is a raucous celebration of oft-vilified writers and their work, brimming with interviews, research, and personality.

A Wildly Funny and Shockingly True Compendium of the Bad Boys (and Girls) of Western Literature

Rock stars, rappers, and actors haven't always had a monopoly on misbehaving. There was a time when authors fought with both words and fists, a time when poets were the ones living fast and dying young. This witty, insightful, and wildly entertaining narrative profiles the literary greats who wrote generation-defining classics such as The Great Gatsby and On the Road while living and loving like hedonistic rock icons, who were as likely to go on epic benders as they were to hit the bestseller lists. Literary Rogues turns back the clock to consider these historical (and, in some cases, living) legends, including Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bret Easton Ellis. Brimming with fasci- nating research, Literary Rogues is part nostalgia, part literary analysis, and a wholly raucous celebration of brilliant writers and their occasionally troubled legacies.

“‘Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love’ extends the schadenfreude to the boudoir.” - New York Times Book Review

“Indispensable advice for all lovers—and especially for those who think they should learn about the art of love from philosophers. A wonderful summary of the musings on love by some of history’s greatest and most idiosyncratic minds.” - Clancy Martin, editor of Love, Lies, and Marriage

“If you’re in dutch with your valentine, give him Andrew Shaffer’s book, which recounts the tortured love lives of 37 thinkers. Compared to them, you’ll look as saintly as St. Thomas himself—who, Shaffer tells us, once chased a prostitute out of his room with a hot poker.” - Martha Stewart Whole Living

“A funny and oddly moving history of philosophy as tortured erotic dysfunction.” - Neal Pollack, author of Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude

“In this rollicking romp through a gallery of writers whose genius came with a price (alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, and other troubles), Shaffer offers a terrific blend of literary history, biography, and witty commentary.” - Publishers Weekly

“Entertaining and well-researched.” - Kirkus Reviews

“What is most remarkable about Shaffer’s history is the way in which it colors that liminal space between writers’ obscurity and their eventual fame - not just with tales of weeklong benders, but also with portraits of sacrifice and stubbornness. Literary Rogues is far from a how-to, but it is strangely reassuring.” - NPR.org

“Remarkable. . . . Literary Rogues is far from a how-to, but it is strangely reassuring.” - NPR.org

“Brilliantly chronicles both the excesses and triumphs of some of the most talented and notorious of them all. . . . A relevant examination of the creative personality. In addition, Andrew Shaffer offers a unique brand of humor celebrating these enigmatic writers who seemingly possessed no boundaries in their quest to live life to the fullest, perhaps forgetting that consequences inevitably follow each decision or choice.” - New York Journal of Books

“Brilliantly chronicles both the excesses and triumphs of some of the most talented and notorious of them all. . . . A relevant examination of the creative personality.” - New York Journal of Books

“This scandalous retelling is an entertaining yet bittersweet memorial to romantic self-destruction.” - NY1