Thomas Mallon

"Up with the Sun is a fictional look back at the life of a little-known, C-list celebrity striver who met a bad end in New York City in the 1980s. Dick Kallman was an up-and-coming actor-until he wasn't. From co-starring in Broadway shows, to becoming part of Lucille Ball's historic Desilu workshop, and then finally landing his own short-lived primetime TV series, Dick's star was clearly on the rise. But his roles began to dry up and he faded from...

"Here are three indispensable works from the Pulitzer Prize-winning laureate of the American heartland, including the novels that inspired a classic film by Orson Welles and an Oscar-nominated performance by Katharine Hepburn. The Magnificent Ambersons depicts the fall from grace of George Minafer, scion of the once-unassailable Amberson family whose wealth and grandeur are in precipitous decline. Alice Adams, perhaps Booth Tarkington's greatest work,...