A Cab at the Door & Midnight Oil

by V.S. Pritchett

Two enchanting memoirs from V. S. Pritchett , available for the first time in a single volume
 
A Cab at the Door , originally published in 1968, recalls his childhood in turn-of-the-century and World War I London with the urbane subtlety and wry humor that have marked his other works. For the wild and eccentric Pritchett family, life is a series of cabs waiting at the door to transport them to a succession of ten-bob-a-week lodgings, in their flight from creditors and the financial disasters of their father. A Cab at the Door also captures the texture and color of the working-class side of Edwardian England.
 
Midnight Oil (which Wilfrid Sheed called a “little Rolls Royce of a book” when it came out in 1972) opens in 1921: Pritchett arrives in Paris to commence with a literary career. Gradually, his creative sensibilities emerge as he travels as a reporter to Ireland, Spain, and America. Midnight Oil provides an intimate and precise record of a writer's discovery of himself and his art. “Pritchett is one of the great pleasure-givers in our language,” said Eudora Welty.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (née Martin). His father, a London businessman in financial difficulties, had come to Ipswich to start a shop selling newspapers and stationery. The business was struggling and the couple were lodging over a toyshop at 41 St Nicholas Street where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after the Queen. Pritchett never liked his first name, which is why he always styled himself with his initials; even close friends would call him VSP.

Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist and unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice had come to Ipswich to be near her sister who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to Derby, and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit, and his easy deceit obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited but life was always precarious; they tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family. They returned to Ipswich in 1910, living for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St. John's School. Subsequently Pritchett attended Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and Dulwich College but he stayed nowhere for very long. When his father went to fight in World War I, Pritchett left school. Later in the war Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, of which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation, and faith healing.

Pritchett was a leather buyer from 1916 to 1920, when he moved to Paris, where he worked as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for the Christian Science Monitor, which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for the paper and for the New Statesman, which later appointed him literary editor.

Pritchett's first book described his journey across Spain (Marching Spain 1928) and Clare Drummer (1929) was about his experiences in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland he met his first wife, Evelyn Vigors, but it was not to be a happy marriage.

Pritchett published five novels but he claimed not to enjoy their creation. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories (The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories (1932)).

In 1936 he divorced his first wife, and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts; they had two children. The marriage lasted until Pritchett's death, although they both had other relationships. His son is the journalist Oliver Pritchett and his grandson (son of Oliver) is the cartoonist Matt Pritchett.

During World War II Pritchett worked for the BBC and the Ministry of Information whilst continuing to submit a weekly essay to the New Statesman. After the war he wrote widely and he started taking teaching positions at universities in the United States: Princeton (1953), the University of California (1962), Columbia University and Smith College. He was fluent in German, Spanish, and French, and published successful biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977) and Anton Chekhov (1988), although he did not know Russian and had never visited the Soviet Union.

Pritchett was knighted in 1975 for his services to literature and became Companion of Honour in 1993. His awards include Heinemann Award (1969), PEN Award (1974), W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990), and Golden Pen Award (1993). He died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Pr...

Reviews

[Sibyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

'A Cab at the Door' is an account of growing up with an impossible, embarrassing set of parents. There's a picaresque quality to this first volume of autobiography. The hero's father is a Mr Micawberish character so the family is seen move from one shabby part of South London to another. Although the family were often hard up and the writer's schooldays were not happy, this isn't 'misery lit'. But neither does Pritchett go in for nostalgia. It's a thoughtful - sometimes affectionate - portrait of larger then life parents, eccentric relatives - and occasional escapes away from the capital.

I read 'Midnight Oil' more slowly. It's a more disparate memoir and the fact that the writer doesn't want to say a great deal about his first (unsuccessful) and later (lasting) marriage means the reader senses there is much s/he isn't being told. However Pritchett is incapable of being dull. There is much wonderful writing about his work and travels in Paris, Ireland and Spain during the 1920s and 30s - as well as a moving portrayal of his parents decline into old age. VS Pritchett also shows us how he, very slowly, became an admired short story writer.

I now want to read his fiction.

[Maureen Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, one must be a Pritchett fan to love his memoirs, but love them I do.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, a good read, and a fascinating account of the author's eccentric forebears.

[Devs38 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Well written. good description of places (mostly England) in the first half of the 20th Century. The characters in the book are Pritchett's own family. He brings them back to life in a real way. His Father was not a good person. He was extremely egotistical and narcissistic. its galling. However, Pritchett doesn't overtly disparage and despise his Father even though the man caused the family so much pain and heartache. It's interesting to read how Pritchett became a writer and what life was like particularly in his childhood (1900 - 1920+).

[Chiefdonkey Bradey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like peering into a clouded mirror - I longed to see more of what was hidden