In this hefty, definitive, and humorless life of Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-96), Mackay, acknowledged ruler of Burns country—editor of The Burns Chronicle, the complete works (1986), the letters (1987), and the concordance (1989)—leads revisionary forces in rescuing Burns from what he believes is an undeserved reputation for lust and debauchery. Most of the more than 900 volumes of Burns biography published since the poet's death have perpetuated the myth of the simple, impoverished ploughman who fathered at least 70 illegitimate children and drank himself to death. Concerned with the life rather than the works, as well as with the posthumous scholarly tradition, Mackay maintains that Burns was, in fact, an ``honest fellow'' (as he called himself on one occasion)—a sober, industrious, pious, and patriotic citizen who married the mother of his nine children; supported the four or five he had with various other women; ran a 170-acre farm; rode 200 miles a week as a tax collector; kept intricate account books; composed reams of poetry; collected volumes of native songs; and was addicted—if at all—only as a ``workaholic not an alcoholic.'' Mackay challenges every legend in the scholarly tradition: Burns's education; his relations with the Church; the origins and objects of his most famous poems; his reputed homosexual relationship; and the identity of ``Highland Mary,'' who supposedly inspired his greatest poetry. From genealogies to legalisms, Freemasons, and farm subsidies, the author overcomes the opposition with irrefutable and weighty evidence. But however convincing Mackay is—however flawless his research and arguments—there remains a need to believe in another Burns: the flawed, vain, lusty, convivial poet driven by ungovernable appetites; Dionysian enough to write the love songs, the bawdry, and the drinking ballads he's remembered by; familiar enough with fellowship, foolishness, and the ``cup of kindness'' to write ``Auld Lang Syne.''
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 1-85158-462-5
Page Count: 749
Publisher: Mainstream/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The world didn't lose a great journalist when Gloria Steinem focused her energies on feminist activism—but because she was a working journalist (and, from 1968, political columnist for first-person-prone New York magazine), the light bulb goes on right here. This first collection of her writings (also, her first book) leads off with autobiographical comments: on the speaking she's done instead of writing, and how difficult ("a major hurdle in my life") and ultimately rewarding it was (kudos on both scores to her black lecture partners); on her earlier writing career, or the frustrations of frivolous, "girl reporter" assignments; on her first stabs at "telling the truth in public" and other outcomes of a "growing consciousness." From the pre-feminist writing, she includes only "I Was a Playboy Bunny"—a 1963 "exposÉ" of the crippling grind, the miserable pay, the sexual harassment (said a co-worker: "If you can type, what the hell do you want to be a Bunny for?")—and the first parts of a section of campaign reports, 1965-72. It's there, in 1968, that the "Feminist Realization" (born of covering women's meetings) hits home—eliciting the kind of protest that would quickly become a groundswell: "Six months ago I would have been honored by McGovern's invitation to a 'serious' (i.e., male and therefore grownup) political meeting, but full of doubt about whether I could contribute in a 'serious' (male) way. . . . I couldn't admit that any power relationship in life is political: therefore politics for women may be who's doing the dishes, or who's getting paid half the wages that a man would get for the same job, or who's expected to take the roles of service and support everywhere, including in political campaigns." A dozen pages later, after the 1972 Democratic Convention (Chisholm for president, Farenthold for V.P.): "Women are never again going to be mindless coffee-makers, or mindless policy-makers. . . ." That sense of being in at the creation is diluted by the non-chronological arrangement of the pieces in the remaining two-thirds of the book—pieces that are essentially feminist polemics whether the subject is food (women's smaller share or "Erotica vs. Pornography," (good) Jackie Kennedy or the (bad) heroine of Sophie's Choice. A partial exception is "Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It)," Steinem's previously unpublished memoir of her mentally-disturbed mother—whom she regards as a victim but also celebrates as a life-force. Still, her particular talent has been for perceiving the feminist angle, in her own writing and for Ms., and spreading that recognition. If some of the ideas here sound hackneyed, she has honest claim to them.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1983
ISBN: 0452257107
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1983
IN THE NEWS
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
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