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MEMOIRS

Name: MEMOIRS
Author: David Brinkley
ISBN: 0-679-40693-X

by David Brinkley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 1995

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A modest, enjoyable, and minor memoir by a journalist who has seen much 20th-century history in the making. Brinkley, whose last book touched on his life as a young wartime correspondent (Washington Goes to War, 1988), writes winningly of his North Carolina boyhood; his first attempts as a writer, encouraged by kindly librarians and teachers; and the good luck and hard work that made him a national figure. He is long on memories of small incidents, less concerned with large events. Thus, in the place of portentous ``I was there'' analysis, we have Brinkley's charming account of a marathon poker game among leaders of state before Winston Churchill's famous Iron Curtain speech, in which Harry Truman instructed his staff to let the British stalwart come out ahead; in the place of bragging about scoops and discoveries, we have Brinkley's self-effacing recollections of missed stories, as when he ignored the efforts of an anticigarette group active decades before the surgeon general's report. The avuncular, sometimes exasperated tone that marks Brinkley's television persona carries over well into these pages. He turns in affectionate recollections of colleagues like John Cameron Swayze (who died last month), noting that Swayze never used a TelePrompTer and had ``an inoffensive down-home manner and style'' that swayed viewers to trust him as they would few other journalists. He gives backhanded compliments even to scoundrels``in Washington, a city already well supplied with your ordinary, everyday liars, nobody could lie like [Joseph] McCarthy,'' he remarks in passingand tells us that Richard Nixon could neither tell nor appreciate a joke. Brinkley's anecdotes, never earthshaking, give human scale to the big picture he has devoted his professional life to covering. (16 pages photos, not seen) (First printing of 150,000; Book-of- the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club selections; author tour)*justify no*

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 1995

ISBN: 0-679-40693-X

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BRINKLEY’S BEAT
by David Brinkley

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO MY OPINION
by David Brinkley

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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.