A comprehensive and entertaining biography that offers appreciably more detail on the life and times of the storied baseball star than does Robert Gregory's Diz (reviewed above). Staten (Unauthorized America, 1990—not reviewed) tracks Dean from his hardscrabble youth as the motherless son of a southwestern tenant farmer to his 1974 death at age 64. In between, the wayward, boastful Dean made an enduring name for himself as a major-league pitcher and broadcaster. Among other credentials, he was a high- profile member of the St. Louis Cardinals teams known as the Gas House Gang, which featured the likes of Leo Durocher, Frankie Frisch, and Pepper Martin. While with the Gang, Dean won 120 games in a five-season span. But within a couple of years after his spectacular 1934 World Series play, Dean, once a workhorse strikeout artist, was in eclipse, the victim of a freak injury that caused him to overtax his strong right—and pitching—arm. Days after his mid-1941 retirement, however, the grammar-school dropout was doing play-by-play radio commentary on the St. Louis Browns and Cards home games. Despite mangled syntax and verbal gaffes, the future Hall-of-Famer was held in high regard by audiences as well as sponsors, and his popularity enabled him to move into a lucrative career on network TV. Notwithstanding a couple of gambling scrapes, and thanks in large measure to a provident wife named Pat, Dean went to his grave a wealthy, respected man. Despite an obvious affection for his subject, though, Staten does not shrink from recounting instances of Dean's less lovable behavior- -including examples of towering egotism, a consistently cavalier regard for truth, and bouts of physical cowardice. A scrupulously documented, well-rounded portrait of an American original. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Feb. 26, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-016514-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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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