Halliday won his success as a writer - and won the wife who loved him - after the First War. Then came the wild Twenties and years of high-pressure speakeasy carousing. Halliday was attractive, Halliday was charming, Halliday was weak. He flashed through the skies like a comet.

This overwhelmingly moving chronicle was written by Budd Schulberg, author of What Makes Sammy Run? and The Harder They Fall - written, says Cleveland Press, "with such literary skill as to justify the widespread belief among critics that Budd Schulberg is major American novelist.