American author John Horne Burns (1916-1953) led a brief and controversial life, and as a writer, transformed many of his darkest experiences into literature. Dreadful follows Burns, from his education at the best schools to his final years of drinking and depression in Italy. With intelligence and insight, David Margolick examines Burns' moral ambivalence toward the behaviour of American soldiers stationed with him in Naples, and the scandal surrounding his second novel, Lucifer with a Book (1949), an unflattering portrayal of his experiences at Loomis.