Life of the supermoneyed author, who turned in his banker's suit for life as an art collector and philanthropist; as told to his old friend and advisor Baskett, with some passages by Mellon himself. Mellon's life is vicariously exciting because of its ties with money—money in quantities he never bothers to measure but which the reader enjoys helping him spend or apportion. As a man, rather than a financial fountain, Mellon (now 85) is somewhat less exciting, though his problems keep a steady fascination throughout. Mellon's great-grandfather, grandfather, and father apparently were all stone-faced, emotionless men who gathered wealth by picking up businesses in distress or just underway, getting them on their feet, and then selling them—although coal and banking remained as stabilizers. The author, however, lost interest in finance while still in college. A few years later, he approached his elderly father and asked that he be released from the family grinding wheel and be allowed to spend his life as he found most rewarding. Dad became Secretary of the Treasury for 12 years while Mellon married a feisty but asthmatic woman, Mary Brown, with whom he entered into analysis in Zurich under Carl Jung himself. Not really an intellectual, Mary nonetheless founded the Bollingen Foundation and saw to the translation and publication of Jung in English—a huge job. Meanwhile, Mellon went off to WW II as an infantry officer, then returned to continue building the National Gallery of Art, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts- -and get in some fox-hunting, horse racing, and book collecting. He is now retired. Smooth-running and lively. (Photos—16 pages color and 48 pages b&w—not seen.)
Pub Date: April 20, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-09723-5
Page Count: 440
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1992
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
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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