This is a chronologically arranged collection of prose and poetry (the earliest here, dating from 1917-1919) characterized by spontaneity and wit. The most recent material is published for the first time in this collection, but many of the older pieces are taken from Poet's Fareweill and Note Books of Night. Among the more recent verse are short epigrams, a rhyming cross-word, funny "Anagrams on Eminent. Authors", "Easy Exercises in the Use of Difficult Words", and a few rather long, tongue-in-check poems using amphisbaenies (backward rhyme) throughout- a fierce intellectual exercise familiar to certain 20th-century poets. There are a few serious prose selections here and an intimate and moving poem from 1942, "On Eliting Scott Fitzgerald's Papers". The nature of the materials included add up to splotchy reading. For Wilson followers, who are fondly familiar with his writing, this offers some delightful insights.
Pub Date: Dec. 5, 1961
ISBN: 0374503281
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1961
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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