First Loves: A Memoir

The memoir of a prominent literary critic and—as is here revealed—a disappointed lover.

The New York Times

Solotaroff's marital complaints can sound whiny, but his depiction of Lynn's never-ending battle with manic-depressive illness is wrenching. And his cameo portraits of Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Norman Maclean and Norman Podhoretz, among other literary figures, are sharp and insightful. — Diane Cole

Ted Solotaroff's first memoir, Truth Comes in Blows (1998), won the PEN Martha Albrand Award. An associate editor of Commentary and the editor of Bookweek, he founded the influential literary journal New American Review, later American Review, and was a senior editor at HarperCollins, where he edited many of the prominent writers of his generation. He is the editor of Alfred Kazin's America: Critical and Personal Writings (2003). His criticism is collected in The Red-Hot Vacuum and A Few Good Voices in My Head. Solotaroff lives in East Quogue, NY, and Paris.