A spicy subject, handled with scrupulous, academic attention to the facts—but with little inclination toward bringing a...
Weintraub (Disraeli, 1993, etc.) continues his documentation of this era with a meticulous volume about the longest-serving Prince of Wales.
Poor Edward was hobbled from the start: his father, Prince Albert, dismissed him as a fool, while his mother, Queen Victoria, refused absolutely (for over 50 years) to allow him to assume any state duties. For all that, however, Edward was the public face of the monarchy from the time of his father’s death until his own, since Victoria was virtually a recluse for most of her reign. The face he showed was kindly but dissolute. He ran with a fast crowd that became known as the Marlborough Set, and he filled in his time with “incognito” travels through the expanding Empire—to India, Canada, and Egypt—as well as through Europe’s best palaces, bedrooms, and brothels. While Victoria made a specialty of bereavement, Edward shot at virtually anything with feathers or hide, and he kept an impressive stable of mistresses (including Sarah Bernhardt, Lilly Langtree, and the famous Mrs. Keppel—forebear of Camilla Parker-Bowles) through whom he sired innumerable children on the wrong side of the blanket. Fortunately for the Windsors, he managed to have several sons by his lawful wife, Princess Alix of Denmark, one of whom succeeded him to rule as George V and keep the dynasty alive.
A spicy subject, handled with scrupulous, academic attention to the facts—but with little inclination toward bringing a lively man to life. This will sit on library shelves to become an excellent reference for the next biographer who comes along.Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-684-85318-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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