Ten years of essentially unrevealing letters from a formative period of the poet and novelist best known for All the King’s Men and as the first Poet Laureate of the United States.
This first in a series of volumes of Warren’s letters planned by editor Clark (English/Texas A&M) covers Warren’s college years, including undergraduate terms at Vanderbilt University and graduate studies at Berkeley, Yale, and Oxford (the last as a Rhodes scholar). The events in that period include an early suicide attempt, an abortive love affair (with a woman code-named “Albatross”), a collegiate scandal involving allegations that women were seen leaving his lodgings early in the morning, amused disdain for the politics and petty conflicts of the college community, and a commitment to poetry that was remarkable even in the midst of the burgeoning Southern literary renaissance (which would include many of the recipients of these letters). Chief among Warren’s correspondents was poet and critic Allen Tate, to whom Warren confided both personal and literary concerns, mailing carbon copies of his poems for Tate to criticize, and in turn commenting on Tate’s work. That pattern prevails with most of his letters to peers, as his correspondence expands to include critics, publishers, editors and other academics. The self-conscious collegiate cynicism fades away fairly quickly, making way for literate, sometimes charming (if often perfunctory) comments on his own and others’ work and lives. Only one letter to his wife Cinima Brescia, notable for its feeling, is included (few are extant); numerous letters to editors (often requesting money) round out the last chapter. The explanatory notes do not adequately fill in the gaps always left when only one side of a correspondence is presented.
Useful for scholars and for admirers of Warren’s work who are very familiar with the author’s life and career. (b&w photos, not seen)Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8071-2536-9
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Louisiana State Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This early reader is an excellent introduction to the March on Washington in 1963 and the important role in the march played by Martin Luther King Jr. Ruffin gives the book a good, dramatic start: “August 28, 1963. It is a hot summer day in Washington, D.C. More than 250,00 people are pouring into the city.” They have come to protest the treatment of African-Americans here in the US. With stirring original artwork mixed with photographs of the events (and the segregationist policies in the South, such as separate drinking fountains and entrances to public buildings), Ruffin writes of how an end to slavery didn’t mark true equality and that these rights had to be fought for—through marches and sit-ins and words, particularly those of Dr. King, and particularly on that fateful day in Washington. Within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed: “It does not change everything. But it is a beginning.” Lots of visual cues will help new readers through the fairly simple text, but it is the power of the story that will keep them turning the pages. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-448-42421-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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