Henderson will probably make about 600 guitars in his lifetime. Get on his list, but don’t hold your breath.
Cheerful days spent in the company of master luthier Wayne Henderson as he oh-so-slowly handcrafts guitars.
Henderson’s guitars—there are fewer than 300 in existence, journalist St. John reports—are revered for the quality of their sound and workmanship. Described as a “Stradivari in glue-stained blue jeans,” Henderson, who lives in a rural Virginia town of seven people, is here portrayed as your standard slow-poking, generous soul, unawed by celebrity (Eric Clapton is among his clients), who just happens to know how to make wood sing. Sports journalist St. John (The Mad Dog 100, not reviewed, etc.) follows Henderson through all the steps, from choosing the wood (Henderson uses Brazilian rosewood and Appalachian red spruce, though readers will sense he could make a rotten stump warble) right through to the abalone and pearl inlays. Like the sculptor who sees the end product in a piece of raw marble, Henderson whittles away everything from a piece of wood “that isn’t a guitar.” St. John’s writing shares a deceptive lightness with Henderson’s guitars. There is a wash of fascinating material in these pages: playing techniques; guitar history (Les Paul made his first functioning electric guitar from a railroad tie); how to find the near-extinct rosewood without going felonious (Henderson located a stash when the floors of Truman Capote’s yacht were being replaced); and the pleasures of sitting in a cluttered workspace with a handful of friends, swapping jokes and stories.
Henderson will probably make about 600 guitars in his lifetime. Get on his list, but don’t hold your breath.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2005
ISBN: 0-7432-6635-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
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
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
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