Living Room

by Sol Stein

Fictional Novel, Literary Fiction

309 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Sol Stein was a best-selling novelist and the publisher of works by James Baldwin and Che Guevara. He also worked with David Frost, Jack Higgins, Elia Kazan, Dylan Thomas, and W.H. Auden.

Stein and Baldwin met as students at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where they worked on the literary magazine.

Stein served in the Army during World War II. In 1949 he received a master’s degree in English literature from Columbia University.

In the 1950s Stein worked at Voice of America, wrote plays, and moved into publishing. He established his own publishing company, Stein & Day, in 1962 with his then-wife. Stein used other publishers for his own novels so he would not be competing with the authors that Stein & Day published.

Stein & Day closed after 27 years, and Stein wrote the nonfiction A Feast for Lawyers as a result of the bankruptcy.

Stein went on to write books about writing, and he taught in colleges. He also helped create WritePro, software to teach fiction writing to its users.

Reviews

[Rob Durham]

Sol Stein is a writing hero of mine in his guides to novel writing. This had a Rules of Civility-like protagonist but I feel like the feminism misses in act III. It’s from the 70’s so I don’t think many knew how to properly portray it. The writing is great though, and the characters are interesting and memorable.

[Claudia Quintana]

Lo leí como a los 13 o 14 años por 1979, y es de los libros que me gustaría volver a leer.

[Abhilash Sahadevan]

Brilliant lines describing the common sense around us.

[Sofìa]

Algo cliché pero entretenido.