"His biography offers a valuable and commendably thorough reintroduction to an underappreciated American writer, whose vast and eclectic body of work deserves renewed attention."--American Scholar

"Steve Paul's well-written narrative offers the first in-depth biography of Evan S. Connell, providing a welcome overview and cogent analysis of his work."--Tracy Daugherty, Oregon State University, author of The Last Love Song

"'What an extraordinary man is Evan Connell, ' Alice Adams wrote. She admired him for writing 'about his obsessions, his major passions rather than about himself, ' and found his work 'so compelling that we come to partake of his enthusiasms.' Thus, too, Connell's 'quaint mania, ' as he called his devotion to writing, inspires every page of Steve Paul's thorough, witty biography. Elegantly and without jargon, Paul persuades us that Evan S. Connell, already revered as a writer's writer, is an indispensable maker of American literature."--Carol Sklenicka, award winning author of Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life and Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer

"Superlative research and a sensitive appraisal of Connell's writing accrue to form a subtly vivid portrait of an 'introverted rebel' wholly devoted to the 'quaint mania' of the craft--or as Connell's good friend Max Steele once described him, 'a strange, silent, extremely lonesome person who can write like no one else.'"--Gemma Sieff, Harper's Magazine

As Steve Paul -- former book editor of the Kansas City Star -- reminds us in his superb Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell, the versatile Connell constantly upended expectations.--Washington Post

"Literary Alchemist has pinned down a hard-to-pin-down character. If it draws more readers to Connell's astonishing body of work, then Mr. Paul has done his job."--Wall Street Journal

"At last, in Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell, journalist, biographer and Kansas City resident Steve Paul has constructed a meticulous, intriguing, and long-overdue appraisal of a talent deserving of wider attention."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Literary Alchemist shines welcome light on events and milestones in the life of a writer who shunned public attention; especially enlightening are descriptions of Connell's world travels and his deeply held connection to nature, which illumine his most adventurous, genre-busting books. Even more valuable, though, is the literary appraisal put forth by Paul, whose 40-year tenure at the [Kansas City] Star included a stint as editor of the paper's book section."--Kansas Alumni Magazine

"Steve Paul's rigorously researched and finely written biography, Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell, will be a major step forward in reminding readers and literary scholars alike what a giant in twentieth-century American literature (recorded in some twenty published works of novels, short story collections, and hard-to-classify nonfiction) Connell was. . . . This engagingly detailed overview of Connell's life, his writing, and its publication history will be indispensable to those fascinated by the career of this most fascinating major American writer."--Missouri Historical Review

"Connell is definitely a writer who deserves canonical revisitation. Paul's craftsmanship in carving out a niche for him is crucial for any scholar of American and, more pointedly, midwestern writing. Remembering a writer such as Connell who focused deeply on interpersonal relationships helps us discover a clearer history of reading and writing practices. And biographers such as Steve Paul are the guides who lead us there."--Kansas History