Exiled in Paris provides a compelling look at the personalities who fueled the literary and philosophical dramas of postwar Paris: James Baldwin, Alexander Trocchi, Boris Vian, Maurice Girodias, and many others. James Campbell provides a fresh look at Samuel Beckett's early career; reveals the facts behind the publication of the scandalous best-seller The Story of O; and tells the poignant story of Richard Wright's years in exile. He captures the sense of deliverance that Wright, so accustomed to daily humiliations in his own country, experienced during his sojourn on the Left Bank, where, for the first time in his life, he was treated as a great man of letters. Here, too, are all the circumstances surrounding Wright's mysterious death, which many close to him regarded as suspicious.

James Campbell is the author of Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin (California, 2002), This Is the Beat Generation: New York, San Francisco, Paris (California, 2001), and Invisible Country: A Journey through Scotland (1990). He works for the Times Literary Supplement.

“Campbell . . . recreates, through numerous crisp stories and anecdotes, the authentic atmosphere of the time without falling into a romantic portrayal of the lives of the exiles. . . . a very informative study and the work of a very insightful writer.”—Fazia Aitel, American Book Review

"It is good to meet all these diverse personalities again, and to have their stories collected within the covers of a single book."—Deirdre Bair, New York Times Book Review

"A remarkable book. James Campbell combines the understanding of a good social historian with an ability to analyze literary achievement in a narrative that has the same sort of interest as a novel."—Christopher Logue, The Guardian

"Informative and exhilarating."—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

"Campbell attains an overview permitting him—better than anyone else, to my knowledge—to bring together writers who are almost always considered independently....The study is invaluable in that Campbell cares deeply about how these writers tried to cope, in their daily lives, with the powerful forces their writings had liberated."—John Taylor, Times Literary Supplement