"A lovely memoir of young manhood, Europe, the aftermath of war, and the search for craft, by an urbane stylist who found, in his excellent prose, the poise that he was seeking."

—Larry McMurtry

"I know of no other book about a writer's apprenticeship from Graves' generation that has quite the candor, quite the remedies for the displacement of war, or exactly this excitement at being given a rain check on life itself. A great book, a great writer."

—Thomas McGuane

"A shrewd, lucid, and uncomfortably perceptive story of a writer's apprenticeship."

—Jim Harrison

"Graves is a master of visual detail, and his journey unfolds with the picturesque clarity of a film."

—Publishers Weekly

"An altogether commendable picture of a time and of a man who proved singularly American."

—Weekly Standard

In Myself and Strangers, John Graves, the highly regarded author of Goodbye to a River and other classic works, recalls the decade-long apprenticeship in which he found his voice as a writer. He recounts his wanderings from Texas to Mexico, New York, and Spain, where, like Hemingway, he hoped to find the material with which to write books that mattered. With characteristic honesty, Graves admits the false starts and dead ends that dogged much of his writing, along with the exhilaration he felt when the words finally flowed. He frankly describes both the pleasures and the restlessness of expatriate life in Europe after World War II—as well as his surprising discovery, when family obligations eventually called him home to Texas, that the years away had prepared him to embrace his native land as the fit subject matter for his writing. For anyone seeking the springs that fed John Graves' best-loved books, this memoir of apprenticeship will be genuinely rewarding.