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TYPEWRITER BATTALION

Name: TYPEWRITER BATTALION
Author: Jack Stenbuck
ISBN: 0-688-14190-0

DRAMATIC FRONTLINE DISPATCHES FROM WORLD WAR II

edited by Jack Stenbuck ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1995

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An absorbing collection of battlefield pieces from WW II newspaper correspondents that range from history-as-journalism to journalism-as-propaganda. Stenbuck, a newspaperman who passed away in 1975 (this manuscript was recently brought to light by his children), began this collection of wartime articles from newspapers and wire services in 1944, when the war was almost at an end. The collection covers the highlights of the US involvement in the war from Pearl Harbor through the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the Nuremburg trials and executions. Many of the articles are global descriptions of momentous events, like the fall of Corregidor, the Normandy landings, and the 101st Airborne's brave resistance at Bastogne, while a few, like Ernie Pyle's ``The Death of Captain Waskow'' (which describes the emotional effect on ordinary GIs of the combat death of a beloved officer), talk of the more quotidian aspects of combat. The works of famous journalists, like Pyle, Homer Bigart, Richard Tregaskis, Walter Cronkite, and Drew Middleton, are presented alongside those of lesser-known authors. Also, the quality varies: Purple prose mars some accounts, many authors engage in extensive editorializing, and articles describing American combat efforts frequently have a relentlessly upbeat tone (even in the account of the nearly disastrous American landings on D-Day). However, simply by virtue of their riveting subject matter, some pieces are unforgettable: a late-war tour of the concentration camp at Dachau; an account of an author's escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp; and the haunted last hours of convicted Nazi warlords in Nuremburg before execution. A first-rate collection of thoughts from the front line that presents the war with an immediacy lost in more scholarly studies and that shows how contemporary Americans viewed the Second World War.

Pub Date: June 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-688-14190-0

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995

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.