Poor Doris—to have a biographer who begins his narrative, ``I never loved my godmother, Doris Duke. I doubt if anyone, other than her father, Buck Duke, ever really loved her.'' At one time considered the third richest woman in the world, after the queens of England and the Netherlands, Doris Duke counted her assets in billions and her yearly income in millions. She died—some say was helped to die—in October 1993 at the age of 81, leaving her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. A hard-drinking Irishman who is rumored to have ``arisen for breakfast wearing some of his mistress's most expensive silk and satin flowing robes and nightclothes,'' Lafferty was soon pushed out by family and other interests, who are still squabbling over the will. That wouldn't surprise Duke, who learned to beat away fortune hunters from the time she was 12 years old and inherited her father's tobacco wealth. Coauthored by Duke's cousin/godson and by novelist and journalist Thomas, this book revels in excess; genuine tragedies mingle indiscriminately and repetitiously with nights at Studio 54, and secret generosity with public scandal. Following her father's death, Duke became a much-publicized debutante, the Princess Di of the Depression, and the press was to follow her marriages and affairs with glee over subsequent decades. Her celebrated lovers included Hawaiian swimming star Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Gen. George Patton, and the legendarily endowed (measurements are provided) Porfirio Rubirosa, her second husband. A deliberately terminated advanced pregnancy led her to fantasize about the daughter, Arden, that might have been and ultimately to adopt a woman, Chandi Heffner, whom Duke believed to be the reincarnation of Arden. Eventually ousted from Duke's life, Heffner later sued for a share of the estate. Coarse and clichÇd biography of another poor little rich girl, whose passions were orchids, animals, jazz, and sex, not necessarily in that order. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-017218-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
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
BOOK REVIEW
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