Milton Meltzer, who edited A Thoreau Profile (see p. 1023, 1962) with Walter Harding, here presents Thoreau in his own words as a social thinker. There are more than 100 excerpts from his journals and letters from 1837 to 1859. Reprinted in full are: "Paradise (To Be) Regained", comments on Etzler's Utopia ("a transcendantalism in mechanics"), Chapter Two of Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" ("Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!"); "Slavery in Massachusetts", printed in the New York Tribune in 1854; "A Plea for Captain John Brown" in 1859 and "The Last Days of John Brown" in 1860; and "Life Without Principle", printed in 1863, seventeen months after Thoreau's death, in the Atlantic Monthly ("Read not the Times. Read The Eternities."). There are words for abolitionist Rogers; for Wendell Phillips and Walt Whitman. Aside from selection, the editor contributes a minimum of orientation. The result is a collection which for the alert reader gives Thoreau's views on the role of the government and the governed (the seeds to Gandhi's passive resistance are here), on religion, on business and urban life, on the state and needs of the individual in society. f reference value, with potential interest for students of politics everywhere.
Pub Date: June 15, 1963
ISBN: 0809093502
Page Count: 235
Publisher: T.Y. Crowell
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1963
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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