Picador nets ‘exceptional’ memoir from Deadwood and NYPD Blue creator Milch

Picador has acquired an “exceptional” memoir by David Milch, the TV writer behind shows such as “NYPD Blue” and “Deadwood”.

Associate editor Paul Martinovic, who acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Life’s Work from Rachel Kind at Random House US, described it as “an exceptional piece of memoir-writing, as smart, thoughtful, outrageous and witty as his TV work, but with the addition of real poignancy”.

The synopsis states: “From the start, David Milch’s life seems destined to echo that of his father, a successful yet drug-addicted surgeon. Almost every achievement is accompanied by an act of self-immolation, but the deepest sadnesses also contain moments of grace.

“Betting on race horses and stealing booze at eight years old, mentored by Robert Penn Warren and excoriated by Richard Yates at 21, Milch never did anything by half. He got into Yale Law School only to be expelled for shooting out street lights with a shotgun.

“He paused his studies at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to manufacture acid in Cuernavaca. He then wrote for ’Hill Street Blues’, and went on to create ’NYPD Blue’ and ’Deadwood’ – some of the most lauded television series of all time. He went on to make a family, spent years pursuing sobriety, and then lost the majority of his fortune betting horses, just as his father had taught him.

"Like Milch’s best screenwriting, Life’s Work explores how chance encounters, self-deception, and luck shape the people we become, and wrestles with what it means to have felt and caused pain, even – and especially – to those we love. It is both a masterclass on Milch’s unique creative process, and a distinctive, revelatory memoir from one of the great American writers, in what may be his final dispatch to us all."

Picador will publish Life’s Work in hardback on 24th November. E-book and audio editions will be released on 7th September.

Martinovic said: “To anyone who has taken an interest in television as a medium over the past three decades, Milch is an almost mythic figure, becoming as legendary for his unconventional working methods as he has for his astonishing TV creations, ’NYPD Blue’ and ’Deadwood’ among them. As such, I had high hopes for this memoir but they have been exceeded spectacularly. Milch recounts his numerous addictions and ongoing medical battles with bipolar disorder and, now, Alzheimer’s disease, with sobering clarity and humanity. This is a defining statement from a truly great creative mind.”