A lively chronicle of an eventful life told with style and rigor.
A biography of Gertrude Sanford Legendre, a wealthy socialite–turned–World War II spy.
Legendre was born in 1902 to an “ultra-wealthy family” in Aiken, South Carolina, and enjoyed an enviably privileged youth. However, she always yearned for adventure—a desire that biographer Smith (co-author: Eleanor Roosevelt Goes to Prison, 2019, etc.) stirringly depicts in these pages. In particular, Legendre developed a youthful “obsession with big game hunting,” according to Smith, shortly after graduating high school, and she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, on a hunting expedition, during which she killed five lions. She later traveled to Ethiopia with the aim of bringing back an African antelope, the mountain nyala, for New York’s American Museum of Natural History—a mission she accomplished. During the halcyon days of the 1920s, she indulged in some “serious partying,” as the author puts it, on the French Riviera, but her life would take a dramatic turn during World War II. She was recruited to work for the American Office of the Coordinator of Information, the organizational precursor to the Office of Strategic Services, which eventually became the Central Intelligence Agency. She worked long hours at a cable desk in Washington, D.C., before being transferred to London, and she “reveled in being in the thick of war activity,” writes Smith. While on leave in Paris, she longed to get closer to the action and irresponsibly took a “joy ride” in enemy territory and was captured by German soldiers in Luxembourg. The dramatic crescendo of Smith’s action-packed portrait is Legendre’s daring escape from her captors across the Swiss border, and it’s a sequence of events worthy of a feature film. It’s clear that the author is enchanted by her subject, but she manages to avoid hagiography; for example, she includes evidence that Legendre didn’t get along well with her children. Still, for all her shortcomings, the book makes clear that she was a redoubtable force. As Smith puts it, Legendre truly “bucked many of the constraints of proper society that strait-jacketed so many of her female peers.”
A lively chronicle of an eventful life told with style and rigor.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-929647-44-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: Evening Post Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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