by Mary F. Corey ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999
Historian Corey (UCLA) sets herself an original task—to re-create the complex mosaic of postwar America from the vantage of the New Yorker, the most cosmopolitan and nonpartisan magazine of the time. The New Yorker attained its zenith in the 1940s and ’50s, when it became the voice of the upper-middle-class, urban intellectual elite—and those who aspired to be counted among them. Corey ploughs through various genres represented in the magazine (fiction, journalism, ads, cartoons, literary criticism) in order to distill some features unifying the magazine’s contributors and readership. She discovers, for example, that fear in a nuclear age was the dominant postwar theme, but the magazine managed to take a balanced view of communism. The superpowers were portrayed as only superficially different, both seeking global domination. When the magazine addressed racial tension, it described the problems in the past or in the South, while stressing that its own domain was progressively northeastern. At a time when most servants hired by wealthy Manhattanites were black, they were consistently pictured as white when lampooned by New Yorker cartoonists. Asians and American Indians were idealized as more spiritual than the white people who were writing about them. This self-deprecating attitude soothed guilt and self-doubt in a readership determined to maintain a privileged existence. The magazine’s discourse on women embraced an array of attitudes, from sexism to subversion of the domestic ideal. Finally, the New Yorker marketed exclusive alcoholic beverages through advertising, and at the same time ridiculed the effects of drinking in cartoons and text. Understandably, the magazine’s conflicting aspirations were bound to draw a vast and diverse audience. Corey’s book provides little analysis, and offers as much enjoyment as leafing through dusty volumes of dated periodicals. Nothing robs New Yorker cartoons of humor like the endless verbal descriptions of them. While the book contains some interesting trivia, its basic conclusion, that postwar American society was torn by anxiety and internal contradictions, is hardly eye-opening.
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-674-96293-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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