The Edge of Language

Acclaimed author's account of the 1970s and the process behind his masterpieces of science fiction and literary criticism

This long-awaited second volume of The Journals of Samuel R. Delany offers a window into the 1970s, a pivotal decade in Delany's career, when he produced some of his most daring and influential work. The journals trace the evolution of Dhalgren, the ambitious novel that employed American Magical Realism and split readers into those who hated it and those who read and reread it with delight, and of the long-suppressed Hogg, a brutal exploration of transgression. They show Delany's subsequent work on Trouble on Triton and the groundbreaking Tales of Nevèrÿon, which wove philosophy, sexuality, and myth into sword-and-sorcery narratives. They also capture his early development of Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, as well as the critical insights that would be refined and explored in the essays found in The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, The American Shore, and Starboard Wine. Intellectually vibrant and deeply personal, these writings illuminate Delany's life as a black bisexual writer navigating identity, desire, and community amid the cultural transformations of the era.

Editor and Delany scholar Kenneth R. James has included a generous sampling of story outlines, fragments of fiction and criticism, and letter drafts alongside the personal entries, and has also supplied biographical synopses and endnotes, all of which enrich and clarify the personal narrative.