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THE LAST WORD

Name: THE LAST WORD
Author: Elizabeth Murrie O'Neil
ISBN: 0-87745-445-0

LETTERS BETWEEN MARCIA NARDI AND WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

edited by Elizabeth Murrie O'Neil ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 11, 1994

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Marcia Nardi (1901-90) was the anonymous female Williams quoted in Paterson (1946), using her letters to represent either the deprived misunderstood poet or the isolated unconventional woman. Here, she is resurrected with all her unpleasant attributes, failures, complaints, and self-defeating gestures in full editorial dress. In 1957, after she won a Guggenheim, Williams told Nardi that she was ``gifted and generous,'' but in fact, for most of their acquaintance, he was assaulted with endless letters full of petty grievances, demands, anger, and resentment to the point that this courtly, magnanimous physician-poet reminded her that ``others have difficulties as well'' and asked her to stop writing to him. Born Lillian Massell in Boston, she dropped out of Wellesley and into Greenwich Village, changed her name, and had an illegitimate son. It was her complex of problems as a single mother—financial, emotional, even sexual (as she explains)—that led her to consult Williams, as a physician, who in turn advised her on treatment, lent her money, helped her with her poetry, and arranged to have her published in New Directions. Other poems followed, as did other troubles that she blamed on poverty, being a woman, and being isolated from literary companionship. But Nardi was so abrasive, needy, and demanding that when she did meet literary figures at Yaddo or Macdowell, writers such as Thornton Wilder or Randall Jarrell, she alienated them with her complaining and her resentful sense of entitlement. She published her last poem in 1971 in The New Yorker and died friendless, except for the present editor, in a nursing home in 1990. In all, Nardi's letters are less revealing of the woman or poet than of the dysfunctional personality who brought out the best in some very talented people, including O'Neil.

Pub Date: Feb. 11, 1994

ISBN: 0-87745-445-0

Page Count: 292

Publisher: Univ. of Iowa

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.