Best-known for his ‘virtually flawless’ A Month in the Country, James [Joseph] Lloyd Carr lived an eccentric life that encompassed, among many other things, cartography, cricket and coal.
Many publishers preface their books with a short author biography – a few factual nuggets saying who he or she is, where they were born and what other books they have written. These brief gobbets of information are usually pulled together by a junior figure in the publishing house. However, the note that sits on the first page of J.L. Carr’s A Month in the Country shows a more playful hand: ‘J.L. Carr is a publisher of standard poets, idiosyncratic maps and unlikely dictionaries. He is also the author of children’s books and novels.’
With these few, well-chosen words, Carr’s own, it is clear that he was no run-of-the-mill writer but a character every bit as interesting as his books – which is not always the case with authors. In fact, these details were positively wordy for Carr; for an American edition of one of his works he offered up just: ‘J.L. Carr lives in England’.
Joseph Lloyd Carr died in 1994. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1980 and 1985, for A Month in the Country and The Battle of Pollocks Crossing respectively.