Gambler in Publishing: Horace Liveright theatlantic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theatlantic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Save this story for later.
Cars had gripped my imagination almost since I had one, as a boy growing up in Ontario. I loved to draw them as they appeared on the pages of magazines. First, in the immediate postwar era, the foggy reprints from British racing journals of prewar Grand Prix. A golden age of mighty giants and fierce competition: Auto Union, Mercedes-Benz, Alfa Romeo, and Delahaye. Immortal drivers: Nuvolari, Caracciola, Seaman. America had the Indianapolis 500, dirt-track racing, world-speed attempts on the Utah salt flats. The so-called sports-car revolution, sparked by U.S. servicemen bringing home spindly little MG TCs, mushroomed into a whole car culture that ignored Detroit. By the time I could legally drive, cars occupied my mind and much of my life. A Ford Anglia, a Morgan Plus Four, two Triumph TR3s, a Porsche 356 coupé. The upward climb that often ended only in bankruptcy or death.