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RADICAL INNOCENT: UPTON SINCLAIR

Name: RADICAL INNOCENT: UPTON SINCLAIR
Author: Anthony Arthur
ISBN: 1-4000-6151-2

by Anthony Arthur ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2006

An immensely readable biography.

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Lively, unsparing look at the turn-of-the-century muckraker, social critic and novelist who changed the way America did business.

Upton Sinclair lived a long, full life (1878–1968), and what it lacked in razzle-dazzle he amply made up in usefulness to the humanitarian cause. The only child of respectable Southerners, Sinclair moved among unsavory New York City boardinghouses as a child, while his salesman father was increasingly incapacitated by bouts of alcoholism. Cramming his school years into a short period, he was seized early on with a “burning sense of mission” and embarked on various zealous tracks that eventually led to his career as a self-described propagandist of socialism. Already married with a young baby (his wife’s eventual adultery provoked the scandal of his life), Sinclair wrote several forgettable novels before discovering his strength as a preacher of the conflict between idealism and materialism in America. He set off to Chicago, determined to write something popular and join the muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities, 1904) who were his heroes. Casting about for his story, Sinclair wandered into the back of the meat-packing yards and witnessed a Lithuanian wedding party that became the opening scene of The Jungle, his scathing indictment of the commercial slaughterhouses. Later, moving to California, he devoted himself to socialist causes in religion, education and the unions, and ran for governor in the mid-1930s. When he won the Pulitzer Prize for Dragon’s Teeth in 1942, a friend declared triumphantly, “The world is catching up with you.” Arthur (Literature/California State Univ.; Literary Feuds, 2002, etc.) organizes his biography into chapters reflecting Sinclair’s various crusading “selves”—e.g., The Warrior, The Pilgrim of Love, etc.—and uses a deft, light touch.

An immensely readable biography.

Pub Date: June 13, 2006

ISBN: 1-4000-6151-2

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
GENERAL JO SHELBY’S MARCH
by Anthony Arthur

- BOOK REVIEW
LITERARY FEUDS
by Anthony Arthur

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TAILOR KING
by Anthony Arthur

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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.