Everybody Was So Young

“A richly detailed and affecting biography.”—The New York Times

“An exhaustively researched and brilliantly rendered biography.”—Los Angeles Times

“[This is] a marvelously readable biography . . . elegantly written and well worth perusing. It is not the first telling of the tale, but it is the most important-more comprehensive than Calvin Tomkins’s Living Well Is the Best Revenge (1971) and more graceful than the telling by Honoria Murphy Donnelly, the Murphys’ daughter, and Richard N. Billings, Sara Gerald: Villa America and After (1982).”—The New York Times Book Review

“Vaill has given us, and them, a gift: She has rescued the Murphys from a semi-obscurity wholly undeserved.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Vaill adroitly captures the laughter, the wit, the cocktails, and the sheer exuberance of this still-alluring period.”—Entertainment Weekly (A-)

“[A] fine, affectionate book. . . . The writing is eloquent enough to warrant the approbation of the Murphys.”—Washington Times

“A brilliant and wise account of the Lost Generation. The supple narrative allies exhaustive research with insightful characterizations of the Murphy’s famous friends. . . . Vaill’s book polishes Fitzgerald’s ‘golden bowl’ into a serious reflection of the 20th century’s aesthetic aspirations and delusions.”—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Such is Amanda Vaill’s skill—and it’s almost incredible that this is her first book—that she makes what might have been a mere literary footnote into an enthralling and deeply moving narrative.”—The Guardian (UK)

“Fascinating and moving, this is biography at its best.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Vaill’s careful look at the Murphys’ lifelong friendships, their ebb and flow over nearly half a century, is captivating. Her research into the Murphys’ own relationship reveals a poignant, enduring love story.”—Harper’s Bazaar