ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY

by Clifton Fadiman ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A concern for the coming leisure which, if not properly employed, will result in tedium and boredom and a purilistic universe marks these essays which are the result of the free play of Fadiman's own mind and which he hopes will inspire you to put the grey cells through a course of calisthenics. His trapeze and gym mat work-outs consist of challenges to American privacy, theories of success, TV, radio and other malign influences, definitions of terms and words: bypaths among cheese, wine, quotations, minor pleasures, mathematics: speech, puns, limericks and clerihews, American U and non-U usage: some second and current thoughts on books -- writing booms, and variations on London through seven of her famous authors. Some hooligans (the puns, limericks and clerihews); some personal defenses (the house in the country, good usage, etc.);-and many qualified thirsts that can be quenched at the small expense of a little mental effort and a determination not to let taste degenerate. A domain in which any spurring can be commended;- for the intelligent rather than the necessarily highbrow.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1957

Categories: NONFICTION