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MAGGIE

Name: MAGGIE
Author: John Sanford
ISBN: 0-942637-97-6

A LOVE STORY

by John Sanford ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 1993

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A moving testimony to the endurance of love and the human spirit as veteran writer Sanford (View from this Wilderness; A More Goodly Country, etc.) celebrates his 50-year-plus marriage to the beloved late Maggie, screenwriter of the Oscar-winning True Grit. As he tells his love story, Sanford occasionally includes extracts from his other writings, in which he analyzes figures as diverse as T.S. Eliot, Richard Nixon, and Billy Graham. Sanford's long writing career—a succession of small successes and large disappointments over six decades—offers a poignant undertone to his tale, as well as a reminder that the writer's path can be a stony one. The Sanfords met in 1936, at Paramount: Maggie Roberts was a successful screenwriter who'd worked her way up from secretary to Hollywood prominence, while Sanford was a novelist brought from New York to work on scripts. The two married a year later, and, with Maggie's encouragement, Sanford abandoned screenwriting: Maggie recognized that he wrote to suit himself and at his own pace. For the rest of her life, Maggie not only supported her husband in comfort—racehorses, Jaguars, attractive houses—but sent money to his ailing father as well as to her own family. It's a generosity that Sanford equally generously acknowledges here—but Maggie was to pay an even greater price. Though Sanford was a lifelong Communist with somewhat naive and idealistic views, it was Maggie who would be hurt the most by his convictions. Joining the Party only because of her husband, she found that her appearance before HUAC made her unemployable for more than a decade, while Sanford was still able to get published. Maggie eventually went back to work for Columbia. She died in 1989. A sometimes too personal story—occasionally, conversations obviously meaningful in context sound stiff and dated here—but heartfelt in its affection and gratitude. (Eight pages of b&w photographs—not seen)

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1993

ISBN: 0-942637-97-6

Page Count: 417

Publisher: Barricade

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 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.