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FAMILY CIRCLE by Cornelia Otis Skinner Kirkus Star

FAMILY CIRCLE

By

Pub Date: Sept. 7th, 1948
Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

A petted lion, darling of the theatrical and reading public, writes the story of her mother, Maud Durbin, and her father, Otis Skinner, and makes a tender romance of their youthful marriage, and an exhilarating account of their stage and parental career. The individual lives of her parents- Maud and her will to act which led to Modjeska's company where she met Otis-my-dear; Otis and the long, hard apprenticeship which took him to Broadway and actor-managership. These combine to background the author's arrival on the scene and her memories and adoration (also impatience with) of her devastating mother, her delightfully unexpected father. Home life, here and abroad, hell-bending for culture, or a play of her father's, theatrical history as they lived it, mother's Maud Skinnerisms which were a special kind of spoonerism, father's unfailing sympathy and understanding, and the glamor of his being an actor, where they lived, and how, the places they went and the people they met. This repeats the author's deft touches from Their Hearts Were Young and Gay, etc., and adds a certain veneration that is wary of fallibility in her subjects, an eye for the ludicrous as well as the serious, and a feeling for the touchstone of a happy marriage. Family as well as theatrical story, a slight exposure to this is definitely contagious.