Still a bachelor at 44, this ''too serious and intense'' man of culture finds himself cut off from his people-those hearty, vulgar, and mostly Indian practitioners of the. He currently holds the Adams Chair at Hofstra University, where he is Professor of English. Iranian-born Kurush (''Cyrus'') Irani, former Columbia grad student and for 17 years a rug merchant on the Upper West Side, lives above his shop in quiet desperation. and the novels The Rug Merchant and Confessions of Summer. 0 Ratings 0 Want to read 0 Currently reading 0 Have read Borrow Listen. A native New Yorker, Lopate has embraced Manhattan by walking every inch of its perimeter. He has worked with children for many years as a writer-in-the-schools and has taught creative writing and literature to graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Houston, Bennington College, and Columbia University. An edition of The rug merchant (1987) The rug merchant by Phillip Lopate. He has also written the novels The Rug Merchant and Confessions of a Summer.

He writes regularly for a variety of magazines and literary journals on topics ranging from movies to architecture and urban form to travel. Virtual Book Launch: The Contemporary American Essay by Phillip Lopate. He has edited two anthologies: Journal of a Living Experiment (1979), and The Art of the Personal Essay (1994, short excerpt of introduction). When I wrote The Rug Merchant, I was trying to imitate a mood that I got from Japanese literature and Japanese movies, a kind of in-dwelling mood. Phillip Lopate is the author of three essay collections, Bachelorhood (1981), Against Joie de Vivre (1989), and Portrait of My Body (1996) two novels, Confessions of Summer (1979) and The Rug Merchant (1987) two poetry collections, The Eyes Don't Always Want to Stay Open (1972) and The Daily Round (1976) and a memoir of his teaching experiences, Being With Children (1975). Lopates response fits what seems to be his interest in psycho-logical, rather than literal, truth. Lopate's works have received numerous literary awards and have appeared in internationally acclaimed publications. Widely considered one of America's foremost essayists and a central figure in the recent revival of interest in the personal essay, Phillip Lopate discusses how to write with style and how style affects writing.

The Rug Merchant by Phillip Lopate