DESERT ISLAND DECAMERON

by H. Allen -- Ed. by Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 1945

A symposium, which in not attempting to be literature, hits the mark in inaugurating many a laugh. Such an anthology, highly personal in selection, is necessarily limited, but Smith has succeeded in avoiding the obvious. Some nine sections -- women, vituperative writings, the sporting life, life's little problems, domestic science, the cocktail hour, Hollywood, dialect dialogues, five characters -- with inclusions from Mark Twain, C.S. Forester, Dorothy Parker, Ring Lardner, Alexander Woollcott, Wolcott Gibbs, James Thurber, Cornelia Otis Skinner, H.L. Mencken, Thorne Smith, Robert Benchley, John Collier, Westbrook Pegler, Fred Allen, and so on. Each article or story is introduced by the editor, with appropriate highlighting...and the whole emphasizes his ability to break with the traditional...His name is likely to push this into higher sales brackets than otherwise be achieved, but it is a good enough collection to meet the requirements for good escape humor.

Pub Date: June 21, 1945

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday, Doran

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1945

Categories: NONFICTION