Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures

A Biography of Denis Johnson

Ted Geltner

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

University of Iowa Press
11 November 2025

Biography; Biography: general; Biography: literary; Media, information & communication industries

The year was 1988, and Denis Johnson was at a low point. He caught malaria on a reporting trip into the jungles of the Philippines and was nearly pronounced dead. The disease left him unable to write. His second wife left him. He didn’t have enough money to pay his taxes. His publisher was waiting for a book that he hadn’t started. But in the life of Denis Johnson, when things were at their bleakest, something good was usually waiting around the next corner. This time, what emerged from the chaos was his masterpiece Jesus’ Son, a book that would tap into the zeitgeist of the 1990s and become a bible for Generation X and an American classic.

Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures tells the complete story of Johnson’s fascinating life, his thrill-seeking trips into war zones as a magazine correspondent, his battles with addiction, his live-it-before-you-write-it style of fiction. It follows the arc of his tremendous body of work as a novelist, journalist, poet, and playwright, and in the process recovers the true stories from the hazy myths that one of our most beloved, yet enigmatic, writers left behind.

By: Ted Geltner
Imprint: University of Iowa Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9781685970376
ISBN 10: 1685970370
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 11 November 2025
Recommended Age: From 18 to 99 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Ted Geltner is professor of journalism at Valdosta State University. He is author of Blood, Bone, and Marrow: A Biography of Harry Crews. His journalism has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Reviews for Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures: A Biography of Denis Johnson

“A biography with all the fluidity and thrust of a novel. Ted Geltner definitively illuminates the tirelessly questing life of one of the most gifted, mysterious, and lyrical writers of our time. Denis Johnson was an utterly unique generational talent, and in these pages his inspiration and devotion to craft shine through brilliantly.”—T. C. Boyle, author, Blue Skies “Brian Eno once said that the Velvet Underground only sold a few thousand records, but everyone who heard them went out and formed a band. Denis Johnson is the equivalent for writers. He opened the door to strange, new territories of disaster and desire and we all streamed in after him, hoping to learn a little. In this intimate and deeply engaging biography, Ted Geltner makes the legend and the man behind it come alive.”—Jenny Offill, author, Weather