A Grand Guy: The Art & Life of Terry Southern

Terry Southern was a writer and cultural figure who moved through the most creative circles of the mid-to-late twentieth century. Born in Texas, he rejected his regional roots and became known for his work with major artists and filmmakers. He co-wrote the screenplay for Dr. Strangelove with Stanley Kubrick and Easy Rider with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. He contributed to Saturday Night Live and appeared on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He was associated with the Paris Review and counted Sartre, Camus, and William Faulkner among his acquaintances. Despite his creative reputation, Southern's greatest commercial success came from a semi-pornographic pulp novel. He was present at major cultural moments—Paris in the 1950s, London in the 1960s, Greenwich Village, and Hollywood—and was known for his satirical writing that targeted consumerism, American political culture, upper-class amorality, and middle-class conformity. Lee Hill's biography traces Southern's life through periods of remarkable success and subsequent decline marked by excess. The book presents an intimate portrait of a satirist whose influence on twentieth-century culture was significant and distinctive.