A warmly sympathetic biography of ``Ireland's Joan of Arc'': Maud Gonne (1866-1953), the agitator and legendary beauty best known today as the muse of William Butler Yeats and mother of Nobel Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride. Of all the contradictions in Gonne's life, the biggest may have been that the woman who personified Mother Ireland in Yeats's nationalistic play Cathleen ni Houlihan was the British Protestant daughter of a Royal Army colonel. Outraged by the plight of starving Irish peasants, Gonne embarked on a lifelong crusade on behalf of the downtrodden and her adopted country's freedom. Ward (History/University of the West of England) is at her best in examining how Gonne overcame the sexism of male Irish republicans because of her wealth and charisma (in addition to being beautiful, she was a mesmerizing public speaker even as an octogenarian). Ward explains the activities that absorbed Gonne's considerable energy, including spying in Czarist Russia, lobbying for land reform, picketing royal visits to Dublin, founding the female nationalist group Inghinidhe na hEireann (Daughters of Erin), raising funds for Irish independence, participating in hunger strikes, and improving the lot of the poor and imprisoned. But the author isn't so successful in accounting for the other aspects of her heroine's public career and eccentric private life—failing to explain, for instance, why Gonne became the longtime mistress of a French right- winger. Ward also avoids criticizing Gonne's patriotically correct protests against plays by John Millington Synge and Sean O'Casey, and her faith in astrology and mediums. A vivid if airbrushed narrative of a glamorous activist whose story begs for Hollywood treatment. (Sixteen pages of b&w photos- -not seen) (For more of Gonne, see The Gonne-Yeats Letters 1893- 1938, 1992, ed. by Anna MacBride White & A. Norman Jeffares.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-04-440889-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1993
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.
The renowned writer offers advice on information-gathering and nonfiction composition.
The book consists of eight instructive and charming essays about creating narratives, all of them originally composed for the New Yorker, where McPhee (Silk Parachute, 2010, etc.) has been a contributor since the mid-1960s. Reading them consecutively in one volume constitutes a master class in writing, as the author clearly demonstrates why he has taught so successfully part-time for decades at Princeton University. In one of the essays, McPhee focuses on the personalities and skills of editors and publishers for whom he has worked, and his descriptions of those men and women are insightful and delightful. The main personality throughout the collection, though, is McPhee himself. He is frequently self-deprecating, occasionally openly proud of his accomplishments, and never boring. In his magazine articles and the books resulting from them, McPhee rarely injects himself except superficially. Within these essays, he offers a departure by revealing quite a bit about his journalism, his teaching life, and daughters, two of whom write professionally. Throughout the collection, there emerge passages of sly, subtle humor, a quality often absent in McPhee’s lengthy magazine pieces. Since some subjects are so weighty—especially those dealing with geology—the writing can seem dry. There is no dry prose here, however. Almost every sentence sparkles, with wordplay evident throughout. Another bonus is the detailed explanation of how McPhee decided to tackle certain topics and then how he chose to structure the resulting pieces. Readers already familiar with the author’s masterpieces—e.g., Levels of the Game, Encounters with the Archdruid, Looking for a Ship, Uncommon Carriers, Oranges, and Coming into the Country—will feel especially fulfilled by McPhee’s discussions of the specifics from his many books.
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-14274-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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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