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DELIBERATE PROSE

Name: DELIBERATE PROSE
Author: Allen Ginsberg
ISBN: 0-06-019294-1

SELECTED ESSAYS 1951-1995

by Allen Ginsberg & edited by Bill Morgan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2000

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A comprehensive, well-organized collection of uneven prose by the late Beat Poet (Journals Mid-Fifties, 1995; Death and Fame, 1999). The essays, articles, and letters here were first printed in magazines like Evergreen Review, Rolling Stone, small presses, religiously affiliated publications or (a score) nowhere at all. Many blurbs and puff pieces of unknowns collected in the "Writers’ section here should not have been reprinted either. But essays on Ginsberg’s intellectual love, Walt Whitman, and one of his physical loves, Peter Orlovsky, add much to the literary and biographical worth of the anthology. In the seven other sections, at least two or three works are essential for the Ginsberg freak or anyone researching pre-revolution Amerika of 30 to 50 years ago. In "Politics and Prophecies," Ginsberg takes on Vietnam, nukes, Un-American Activities, and most government agencies. He supports the Hell’s Angels and has the chutzpah to write that "to be a junky in America is like having been a Jew in Nazi Germany." And this isn't even in the section devoted to "Drug Culture," where, testifying at a Senate hearing, he compares mind-expanding LSD to the ritual taking of peyote. In "Mindfulness and Spirituality," the bard lectures in Emerson’s old pulpit and intones mantras over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Ginsberg outted homosexuality itself, but few will defend the pro-pederasty defense of NAMBLA which appears in the "Censorship and Sex Laws" section. Admirers of Kerouac, Burroughs, and Blake will most appreciate "\Literary Technique and the Beat Generation" and the following section, especially the essays on the making of "Howl" and "Kaddish." Finally, in "Further Applications," Ginsberg proclaims that with John Lennon and Bob Dylan we see that "poetry has returned through music back to the human body." Except for historians and fans of the Beats, nothing to howl about.

Pub Date: March 2, 2000

ISBN: 0-06-019294-1

Page Count: 528

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FALL OF AMERICA JOURNALS, 1965–1971
by Allen Ginsberg ; edited by Michael Schumacher

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST MINDS OF MY GENERATION
by Allen Ginsberg edited by Bill Morgan

- BOOK REVIEW
I GREET YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CAREER
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti & Allen Ginsberg ; edited by Bill Morgan

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.