Talk:Frederic Prokosch

1906 or 1908?

Both 1906 or 1908 are given as his years of birth.--Radh (talk) 08:28, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Praise from notable writers

Prokosch's novels were supposedly praised by Thomas Mann, André Gide and other cultural heavyweights but trying to find the authentic source of any of the quotes is not easy. E.g. I can't find any place where Camus actually reviewed the book that the article quotes him commenting about: "Prokosch has invented what might be called the geographical novel, in which he mingles sensuality with irony, lucidity with mystery. He conveys a fatalistic sense of life half hidden beneath a rich animal energy. He is a master of moods and undertones, a virtuoso in the feeling of place, and he writes in a style of supple elegance." TBH, this doesn't sound much like Camus to me. I'll keep trying to find the original source but so far, no luck. Pascalulu88 (talk) 00:17, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

The Camus quote comes from Anatole Broyard, the NY Times critic. It is from a June 10, 1983 (Section C, Page 25) article called "Books of the Times," written when Asiatics was re-issued. Here is the link, although I'm not sure whether you can get to it behind the paywall (I have a subscription). The first two paragraphs of the review are as follows: "WHEN The Asiatics, Frederick Prokosch's first novel, was first published in 1935, Thomas Mann described it as a book which has stimulated, haunted and enthralled me. Andre Gide called it an astonishing feat of the imagination and went on to praise it as poetic in its sensuality, witty in its melodrama, urbane in its misanthropy, incandescent in its imagery. Albert Camus said, Prokosch has invented what might be called the geographical novel, in which he mingles sensuality with irony, lucidity with mystery. Now that The Asiatics has been reissued in a large and handsome paperback edition, we can see that these extraordinary recommendations still apply. The book is almost as good as they said it was. Though Mr. Prokosch went on to write 14 more novels, this was perhaps his best." Chisme (talk) 04:08, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

Yes, I know what the alleged quotes from Thomas Mann and Andre Gide and Albert Camus are. They've appeared on the covers of the two novels, "The Asiatics" and "The Seven Who Fled" every time they've been reprinted. No doubt that's where Anatole Broyard read them also. The problem is that it's difficult to find out where exactly Mann, Gide, and Camus said them or wrote them. Now, Thomas Mann read and praised all sorts of American novels while he lived in Ca., e.g. James T. Farrell's "Ellen Rogers" and Meyer Levin's "The Old Bunch." He had quite wide taste, so it's not improbable that he liked Prokosch. But given the difficulty in tracking down the source of these quotes, and the fact that Prokosch faked his own memoirs, makes me think that the quotes could be spurious. As I say, I'll keep looking. Pascalulu88 (talk) 14:09, 5 July 2025 (UTC)

He didn't "fake" his memoirs. He fibbed and exaggerated, but his memoirs are mostly true. I trust the publishers of Prokosch's novels not to have invented praise from Camus etc. themselves. Chisme (talk) 00:25, 14 July 2025 (UTC)