A chronicle of the private and public lives of Mercy Otis Warren, one of the first historians and poets of the new American republic, and her father. (James Otis) husband (James Warren) unstable brother (James Otis, Jr.) and friends of the Otises and Warrens. Fritz, who has written histories for juveniles, is an assiduous researcher and competent assembler; this germane but bland book, however, cries out for fuller use of primary sources, especially the Warrens' correspondence with John and Abigail Adams, and Mercy's own poetry and prose. A compensatory grasp of factions and issues is lacking, though the book records the external shifts in the alignments of Massachusetts politics. Though Mercy was an energetic satirist, the psychological side of her character emerges insufficiently. Her despair over her willful and favorite son is one of the more vivid elements of the book, along with the estrangement from the Adamses and 1812 reconciliation, the sympathetically rendered collapse of Governor Thomas Hutchinson in England, and Mercy's acquaintance with a more spectacular woman of letters, Catherine Macaulay. A period piece spanning almost a century whose circumstantialities might gently engage specialists, devotees, and researchers of American social history.
Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1972
ISBN: 0395139457
Page Count: 440
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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