Charles Jackson
Description
Charles R. Jackson was born in Summit, New Jersey in 1903. He graduated from Newark High School in 1921. As a young man he worked as an editor for local newspapers and in various bookstores in New Jersey, Chicago and New York prior to falling ill with tuberculosis. Jackson spent the years 1927-1931 in sanatoriums and eventually recovered in Switzerland. His successful battle cost him a lung and served as a catalyst for his alcoholism. He returned to New York at the height of the Great Depression and his difficulty in finding work spurred on his binge drinking. His battle to stop drinking started in late 1936 and was largely won by 1938, the year in which he married. During this time he was a free-lance writer and wrote radio scripts. The 1944 publication of The Lost Weekend catapulted his career toward success. He moved briefly to Hollywood in the Summer of 1944 and shortly thereafter to New Hampshire with his growing family, including his two young girls. He lived on and off at his home in New Hampshire for ten years. At the height of his career, Charles R. Jackson lectured at various colleges. In the mid-1950s he begain struggling with finances and moved with his family to Connecticut. Jackson spoke about alcoholism to large groups, sharing his experience, strength and hope. He was the first speaker in Alcoholics Anonymous to openly address drug dependence (Barbiturates and Paraldehyde) as part of his story. After relapsing into alcoholism Jackson became estranged from his family and rented an apartment in New York City that was shared with his lover in 1965. Jackson suffered from Chronic Lung Disease and committed suicide via an overdose of sleeping pills in his room at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City on September 21, 1968. Whether he was gay or bisexual is unclear; Anthony Slide, a modern scholar, asserts "Charles R. Jackson [was] identified as bisexual late in life." (from wikipedia)
Books
The sunnier side
Ignoring taboos, revealing episodes tell the early life of Don Birnam of 'The Lost Weekend', the girls he knew and the things he learned.
The Fall of Valor
Review by Shelter Somerset: Set and written during World War II, Charles Jackson’s “The Fall of Valor” is a masterful work that depicts marital crisis and simmering sexuality at a time when most of us might assume Americans would rather recoil from such frankness. But as Jackson highlights, the second war, in some ways, brought sexuality to the American forefront for perhaps the first time. John and Ethel Grandin, together ten years, hope a trip to the seashore might rekindle their troubled marriage. But after meeting young honeymooners on the boat to Martha’s Vineyard, John becomes obsessed with the groom, the handsome and burly Marine captain Cliff Hauman.
The lost weekend
"Based on the novel by Charles Jackson, a work that many in Hollywood had thought unfilmmable because of its relentless grimness, The Lost Weekend was one of the first films to explore the devastating effects of alcoholism. Ray Milland was cast against type as Don Birnam, a writer plagued by depression and self-doubt who, as his alcoholism progresses, slips into a horrifying downward spiral of lying, begging, stealing, and madness. Milland's riveting performance won him an Oscar. Jane Wyman also delivers a powerful performance as his faithful girlfriend, Helen St. James, whose selfless love offers Birnam a hope of redemption.". "This facsimile edition of The Lost Weekend not only reveals the genius of the film but also illuminates how the script stands alone as a rare, wonderful piece of writing. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction looks at the transformation from novel to film and examines Wilder and coauthor Charles Brackett's methods as collaborators. Readers will gain important insights into the craft of screenwriting, and the personality and methods of one of Hollywood's greatest directors."--BOOK JACKET.