THE COMIC SPIRIT

Except for Agee's essay on ""Comedy's Greatest Era,"" this is not about the comic spirit but in it: a nicely printed, browsable selection illustrated with black and white stills of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd, as well as with some early American paintings that were never intended to be humorous (and to our eyes often still aren't). The collection includes Thurber's ""New Natural History"" and ""Secret Life of Walter Mitty,"" ""Jabberwocky"" and two parodies of same, five whole stories by Twain, Richard Armour on the ""Discovery of America"" and even some selections from Jane Martel's ""Smashed Potatoes."" Although one or two of the entries (Saroyan's ""Fable IX,"" for example) don't seem to be especially suitable for a children's anthology, there is much here that will be read and looked at more than once. Yet the very familiarity of the material suggests that the compilation will be a bigger addition to home shelves than to libraries.