1 comments about Civil War Hospital Sketches (Dover Evergreen Classics).

1. This book was short and gave some insight, but was a little disappointing since I had just finished reading Civil War Nurse: The Diary and Letters of Hannah Ropes. Both Louisa May Alcott and Hannah Ropes were assigned to the same hospital. Hannah Ropes' book is more in depth with the day-to-day details and her feelings than Hospital Sketches. Louisa May Alcott's book makes you think it was written specifically for a certain reading audience in mind and was found lacking in some respects.
   (signed LAS)

1 comments about Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel.

1. A double shot of a biography on whiskey magnate Jack Daniel with hard-work and determination as the foundation to his life and principles.
   Born in the mid-1800's and orphaned at the age of fifteen, JD immediately found himself working in a local Tennessee distillery manufacturing some of the highest quality spirits in the region from men who were the best in the business. He was known as the boy distiller.
   In his early twenties, he had the opportunity to partnership with his mentor and the rest as they say is history.
   It was not easy though. For decades he battled revenuers, the government, corrupt officials, temperance groups and later the prohibition movement. Even with these many adversities throughout his life, philanthropy was his middle name.
   Peter Krass has uncorked an imbibing read of a unique man and the times in which he lived.

No comments about The Man Who Believed He Was King of France: A True Medieval Tale.

3 comments about The Wilderness World of John Muir.

1. I really enjoyed this book as it was focused on plants and animals. My favorite chapters were "The Water Ouzel" (a bird) and "Stickeen" (a dog). However, the whole book was interesting and enjoyable, including chapters about different people he met along the way ("The Robber" and "The Blacksmith"). This book is titled as "a selection from his collected work." I enjoyed his writing so much that I will look for a complete volume of his works so I don't miss out on any other great stories.



2. I am often asked for a recommendation of what among Muir's writings, or writings about him, one should first read. After spending more than 30 years appreciating both his writings and most of the books about Muir that have been published during that time, and after ten years editing the John Muir Exhibit online, I can only turn to the same book that originally enthalled me with John Muir: The Wilderness World of John Muir, edited by Edwin Way Teale.
   
   This book was edited by someone who was himself an able naturalist and nature-writer, and therefore someone who could understand Muir in a way that most academics, whether professors of literature or historians, cannot. Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980), has been ranked as a nature writer with been ranked with Henry David Thoreau, John Burroughs, as well as John Muir himself. His honors include being elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, receiving the John Burroughs Award in 1943, and the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. He was the author of 32 books. Teale's sympathy for Muir's message is shown in the book's Dedication page, which is "Dedicated to The Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, The National Parks Association, and all those who are fighting the good fight to preserve what John Muir sought to save."
   
   This book serves as both an anthology of the very best of Muir's writings, and also a biography, compellingly provided by Teale.
   
   The biographical value of this work is often under-stated, even by the publisher. The book is typically viewed as an anthology, and indeed it is, primarily; but it also contains a wealth of biographical information, far more than the typical anthology.
   
   Teale commences his book on John Muir with an authoritative 10-page Introduction, that not merely identifies the key events in Muir's life, but provides an assessment and perspective of how Muir stacks up with other nature writers. He provides facts you won't find elsewhere: "While visiting friends, Muir sometimes would talk four hours at breakfast." Teale, writing in 1954, was able to talk with several people who knew Muir personally. He noted that everyone he talked to had a different view of which phase of natural history held first importance in Muir's mind. Some thought it was trees; another thought it was geology, another plants. Teale points out the fourth view, probably the nearest right of all: "... the whole interrelationships of life, the complete rounded picture of the mountain world. Today, Muir probably would be called an ecologist." Teale 's assessment of Muir as an "ecologist" pre-dates the "ecology movement" of the 1970s by at least 15 years. Teale admirably tells of the scope of the places, glaciers, plants, and animals named after him, and Muir's contributions to science and conservation. Although public appreciation for Muir has grown dramatically since Teale's book was first published in 1954, The Wilderness World of John Muir still provides the best introduction to Muir's life and writings.
   
   Following the admirable Introduction, each of the 51 excerpts from Muir's writings commences with a preface by Teale, of up to a page in length, presenting in chronological order the story of Muir's life, and putting each of Muir's writings into context.
   
   Although serving as a biography, the Wilderness World is, in fact, primarily a superb anthology. Rather than simply re-printing the full text of such of Muir's works as The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, Travels in Alaska, Our National Parks , and the Journals, Teale provides short snippets from the best of Muir's writings, arranged into seven broad categories:
   
   I. Memories of Youth - reprints Muir's writings about his boyhood in Scotland, life on the Wisconsin Farm, seeing immense flocks Passenger Pigeons, nearly dying of choke-damp while digging a well, his inventions, and his enrollment at the University of Wisconsin.
   
   II. University of The Wilderness - Excerpts from A Thousand Mile Walk, including people by the way, camping among the tombs of Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, and Muir's visit to Cuba and New York.
   
   III. The Range of Light - Muir's adventures in the Sierra, including his first glimpse from Pacheco Pass and crossing the bee pastures of the Central Valley, his first visits to the High Sierra, climbing on the brink of Yosemite Falls above the Valley, tributes to wildlife including bears and grasshoppers, and his telepathic experience sensing the presence of his former University Professor Butler in the Valley.
   
   IV. The Valley - Muir's glorious tributes to Yosemite Valley's waterfalls, the water ouzel, the earthquake, and Ralph Waldo Emerson's visit.
   
   V. Forests of the West - Including Muir's adventure high atop a Douglas fir during a wind-storm, and writings about Silver Pine, the Douglas Squirrel, Sequoia, Nevada Nut Pines, and Muir's clarion call to protect the forests, "Any Fool Can Destroy a Tree."
   
   VI. Glacier Pioneer - Muir's discovery of the Sierra glaciers, his climb of Mount Ritter, his perilous night on Mount Shasta, and his travels in Alaska, including his discovery of Glacier Bay and his adventure with Stickeen.
   
   VII. The Philosophy of John Muir - excerpts from many scattered sources focusing on Muir's views on mankind's relationship to Nature. For many, this is the favorite part of the book, the part one returns to again and again for inspiration.
   
   Despite this, the book does have some failings. The book belies the importance of Muir's family and friends, which becomes so evident upon reading his extensive correspondence. Nor does the book do more than barely mention some important places in Muir's life, such as his global travels to such places as the glacial mountains of Europe, the forests of Siberia, the Himalayas and forests of India, Australian and New Zealand forests, and, the fulfillment of his life-long dream, his last trip to see the forests of South America and Africa. The book emphasizes Muir's appreciative writings about Nature, and only briefly mentions the conservation battles which consumed so much of his life, including his long campaign to protect Hetch Hetchy. To obtain a whole picture of Muir, the reader will need to also read another work about Muir's conservation campaigns, such as Roderick Nash's chapter on "John Muir: Publicizer" in Wilderness and the American Mind, Stephen Fox's John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement, or John Muir and the Sierra Club: The Battle for Yosemite by Holway R. Jones.
   
   Since the book was originally published in 1954, it is not informed by some of the more recent research resulting from Muir's unpublished journals and correspondence, published in the John Muir Papers in 1980. Given the popularity of this book, fifty years after its first publication, the publishers should consider a second edition, again using a nature writer rather than a literary critic or historian to update the book.
   
   Overall, in this book Muir comes alive, as someone who can can at once write inspiringly and poetically about trees, storms, mountains, glaciers, and forests, but yet also show the attention to detail of an analytical scientist. Muir is revealed as adventurer, a lover of nature, a person who can still excite the imagination of readers. As Teale concludes, "Rich in time, rich in enjoyment, rich in appreciation, rich in enthusiasm, rich in understanding, rich in expression, rich in friends, rich in knowledge, John muir lived a full and rounded life, a life unique in many ways, admirable in many ways, valuable in many ways.... In his writings and in his conservation achievements, Muir seems especially present in a world that is better because he lived here."
   
   August, 2004



3. Whether you are interested in John Muir specifically or just want to read about an interesting life, this book is an excellent place to start.

   John Muir had an incredible and important life, and it is told here succinctly in his own words, excerpted to emphasize the profound. It is a glimpse into a lifestyle 99.9% of us will never know, yet it is truly important to our times. His love of nature, adventure and exploration is a reminder of why we need to experience more than our 9 to 5 workdays and why we need to apply ourselves to the protection of the Earth.

   Muir was a gentle but strong man, a genius with simple needs, solitary yet influential. This book is a terrific way to look into his life and his time and to gain some inspiration into our lives and our times.

5 comments about Blues All around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King.

1. BB King has penned a memoir that may be the best written of the many fine autobiographies issued by our finest blues musicians. And I've undertaken to read ém all! This one is frank, revealing, entertaining and full of historical insight, a must for blues fans, history fans and anyone who enjoys a fun read.



2. THERE ARE MANY BLUES SINGERS FROM ROBERT JOHNSON TO THE PRESENT, BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE THEY CALLED "THE KING OF THE BLUES" THIS MAN IS A LEGEND HE IS CALLED B.B.KING. THIS POWERFUL BOOK GOES INTO THE HUMBLE BEGINNING OF RILEY B. KING AS A SHARECROPPER,THROUGH THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT,RACISM TO PERFECTING THE MUSIC THAT IS HIS FIRST LOVE "THE BLUES" .HERE IS A MAN WHO CAME FROM A SIMPLE HUMBLE BEGINNING TO PERFORMING BEFORE KINGS AND QUEENS AND PRESIDENTS AND EVEN THE POPE. IF YOU HAVE SEEN B.B.KING YOU KNOW WHY HE IS CALLED THE KING OF THE BLUES, IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN HIM YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON "THE MAN" HIMSELF ALL YOU CAN DO IS READ THIS POWERFUL BOOK



3. I've read BB's book several times, maybe 5 or 6. Every time I read it I still love it. I learn something new about him every time. If you even consider yourself a fan of BB or the blues, you have to read this book. David Ritz is an awesome co-writer, keeping BB's voice in the forefront, and he just gently guides BB. He did a hell of a job with Etta James' autobiography also.
   An excellent book!!



4. His real name is Riley B. King, the B.B. stands for Blues Boy, and he is known as "America's ambassador of the blues". A recommended enjoyable, good read about growing up and into music, self-taught guitar, remarkable attitudes of a man who faced prejudice and hate with an even keel. A performer who went on stage even when he was suffering from a bad case of flu. B.B. King took his music to Israel, England, and Russia, and held up in stature through the lows and highs. And he loves his 'Lucille' (guitar)! David Ritz has co-authored with the King a wonderful synopsis of love, fortitude, belonging, and enthusiasm. Recommended for blues lovers or otherwise... please don't miss this splendid read. (Review based on hardcover 1996)
   Reviewer also recommends: 'Between Each Line of Pain and Glory My Life Story' by Gladys Knight



5. A blues story
   B.B. King's life is presented here in a breezy, happy go lucky style. Ostensibly an autobiography, (although if you heard any of B.B.'s interviews about the book and his amazement at some of the details that were revealed, you know David Ritz did much more than help out.) this book deals with B.B.'s childhood of amazing poverty and his eventual rise to be the "King of the Blues." Conversational in style, but revealing in detail, BLUES ALL AROUND ME works as both a personal reminiscence and as a look at the life of a black man living in America during the 20th century. Tales of racism (in the military and elsewhere), the difficulties of dealing with a less than honest music industry, and the struggle for success against these odds are all expressed in a manner that shows no true anger, rather an acceptance that these were challenges to overcome. B.B.'s personal relationships with the many women in his life is not avoided, nor his opinions of many of his contemporaries. While the selected discography is extremely disappointing, this book should be required reading for any fan of the blues, and while any autobiography has to be taken with a grain of salt, this one definitely rings true.

5 comments about The American Agent: My Life in the CIA.

1. I love everything CIA. But his book gets off to a super slow start. 120 pages in and all the character has been in the hospital the whole time doing rehab. I realize this is a true story, but it is kinda boring at first.
   
   I may try to finish it... I am not sure.



2. A wonderful account of an interesting career. If you are into government, intelligence, foriegn politics, or just plain old spy novels, you should definately read this book.



3. Some of the content of the book is fascinating. I enjoyed when he discussed operational details, but they seemed few and far between. As other reviews have said, the book seems focused on house hunting and the like. I also found his writing style to be a bit up and down. It almost reads like a first draft, with a strange flow.
   I would recommend the book for anyone who is interested in the subject because there is not that much available that describes life inside the Agency. That being said, it is by no means a great read.



4. Good insite into the internal politics at the CIA. Pulls no punches regarding who (historically) supported the agency's mission and who did not.
   
   Good perspective of what our field agents face abroad, their lifestyle, challenges with landguages, cultures, etc.
   
   Slightly disappointed Holm did not go more into specific or theoretical cases. Also, he rants a bit too much at the end to get 31 yesrs of frustratio off his chest.



5. Holmes is a very detailed man. He tells his lifestory in great detail. Some of it is interesting, some of it is not. He does an excellent job in describing the agency and how it operates. Unfortunately, you have to read or go through a lot of junk to get there.
   
   If you want the "quick and dirty" info about the CIA and how it operates, do not get this book. If you want great details about our operations in the Congo, Laos, and Asia and you have plenty of time, this is the book to read.

5 comments about Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work.

1. This book, like most written about J. S. Bach within the last hundred years, paints a man who wrote "J. J." at the top of his compositions as a humanist! (The two "Js" stand for "Jesu Juva," a Latin inscription meaning, "Jesus, Help Me." These same manuscripts were ended with S.D.G. = Soli Deo Gloria or, To God, Alone the Glory.)
   
   Men like Geck, with long strings of letters after their names, rush to derail the abundant and irrefutable proofs that J. S. Bach was a devout, believing and practicing CHRISTIAN, and they misrepresent him as a humanist. Some books, like this one are downright silly in proposing that a man who set to music more than five hundred deeply spiritual and Christ-centered cantata texts, did so while not believing a word of what he set. To accept the Bach as a humanist would mean that on every Sunday (except during Lent) and on all the major Feast Days, from 1723 to 1750, Bach's choirs sang a lie and he directed those lies.
   
   Bach never wrote words himself, or set to music words of anyone else who believed or espoused the Humanists mantra: That mankind's strength comes "from within." Read the words to the recitative for bass in the Christmas Oratorio that state: "My Jesus, when I die, I shall not die eterally. Thy name upon me Thou dost write, which puts the fear of death to flight!" No one, who reads the texts to Bach's Pentecost cantatas can come away with any doubt that the composer truly believed in an in-dwelling Holy Spirit and in the life-changing qualities of that infusion of God's power.
   
   To the unbeliever, these words are suffocating and seem excessive. But further familiarization with the texts Bach chose, reveal other, innumerable instances of just what he believed. Bach did not believe, as humanists would propose, that man is basically good. Bach did not believe that man can improve himself by merely being kind to others and by drawing upon some mysterious, self-contained strength.
   
   To confirm this, read the margin notes he wrote in his Calov Bible. The book is in the library of Concordia College in Missouri, USA. The "New Bach Reader" contains all these notes with very clear explanations of them.
   
   Further, Geck's book indicates that Bach was a pietist. This is clearly WRONG. Bach put up with a pietist rector in Muehlhausen and stomached the incursion and growing popularity of pietism, but he was an ORTHODOX LUTHERAN and he retained and practiced all the elements of that strong faith, inculcated in him and his father, Ambrosius, all his uncles and ancestors, going back to the earliest known ancestor, Lips Bach!
   
   J.S. Bach set to music and wrote in his second wife's "Notenbuch," arias, recitatives, chorales and choruses that support the teachings of Martin Luther: That man's salvation comes only through the grace of God, as a gift. It cannot be "earned" or "bought" as the Roman church had taught. He believed, as Luther did, "By Adam's fall, we sinned, all." Further, as Luther knew, Bach knew that good works are not the recipe for eternal life.
   
   Humanists believe doing good is what makes a person better. Luther (,St. Paul) and Bach believed people are worms to start with and that once you had accepted Christ's gift of salvation, one would WANT to do "good" in order to serve their new Lord and his creation. Geck apparently does not share or understand this, so he (and others) attempt to ignore or twist Bach's Orthodox Lutheran beliefs to suit the revisionist and humanist view of what the sermons and cantata texts in the Thomaskirche stated clearly.
   
   This is a long treatise on Bach's beliefs, but a full explanation is required to point out how misguided and uninformed Geck and the others are, when they minimize, debunk or distort Bach's beliefs and replace them with what most of "academe" thinks is a smarter and better-informed interpretation of them.
   
   The book does reveal Geck's sometimes extravagant conjectures about known happenings in Bach's life, but I could not discover anything new and useful. Instead, I found a tiresome re-hashing of popular fable and baseless and untruthful revisions in what Forkel and Spitta wrote about when it came to the great Sebastian's beliefs.
   
   Michael Lonneke
   Round Hill, VA



2. This book is a strange combination of some interesting content (especially the part about the works; the biographical information is dry and gives no idea what kind of a person Bach was), and some very misguided choices in translation. Aside from the occasional translation error, the translator seems not to realize that the "historical present", which is used in German, does not exist in English (other than rarely). This gives, as another reviewer pointed out a sensation of cognitive dissonance. As I translator myself, I'm used to seeing this is French (the language I work from), but when I read a French book using this, it is rarely as disturbing as it is here. The translator should have normalized this into English, that is, using the past, but also should have normalized the disturbing shifts of time from the past to the present that occur on nearly every page.
   
   The biographical section is, as I mentioned, dry and static; you get no feeling that Bach ever ate a meal or went to the bathroom. It is fact after fact, date after date, written document after written document. The parts about the music itself are more interesting, but the overall feeling this book leaves is one of confusion. The decision to separate Bach's life and work is curious; the two were intertwined (especially because the author talks so little about Bach as a person, there's nothing else to hold up to the light).
   
   All in all, this is not a good book for someone wanting to understand Bach's life. Alas, in spite of the many books about Bach, not many of them do so. Others are also plagued by translation errors, or academic prose, and a real humanist biography of Bach is needed.



3. Other reviewers (three at the time of writing) have adequately addressed the scholarly content of this book, so I shall confine myself to a stylistic problem that none of them mentions. Perhaps it didn't disturb them? It certainly did me; in fact, it drove me crazy.
   
   And that is (if you will forgive me), that the author cannot make up his mind whether he spoke of Bach in the past or the present tense. For instance, on p. 38 we have:
   
   `Eisenach not only provides his musical world but is also the site of his upbringing and education' (etc.)
   
   But then:
   
   `The hymnal, the catechism, Latin texts -- these elements dominated the early education of young Bach.'
   
   Again:
   
   `At all events, he sets out on foot in March 1700 for Lüneburg, to arrive there before Easter. His classmate at the Ohrdruf lyceum, Georg Erdmann, released from school several weeks earlier, may have accompanied him.'
   
   These examples, perhaps not particularly egregious, are merely chosen at random from those that pervade the book.
   
   German is sufficiently like English, that it seems safe to assume that this is a characteristic of the original, and not of the translation (especially since we're told that the translation is `skillful'). It would be interesting to know for sure; I looked at Amazon Germany's website, but Search Inside was not enabled.
   
   Sad to say, the mannerism also affects the analysis portion of the book, contaminating not only syntax but semantics. On p.355 we read:
   
   `Bach continues his experimenting. For the very next Sunday, the fourteenth Trinity Sunday, he writes an opening chorus for the cantata BWV 25...'
   
   Since we have by now grasped the fact that Bach is dead, we can safely assign this event to the past. But then we have:
   
   `Taking a broad view of Bach's music, the musicologist Gerd Rienäcker speaks of a "consciousness of catastrophe," located in Luther's theology but...' (etc.)
   
   Is Rienäcker a denizen of the 18th century, or the 20th? Or is it the 19th? We have no easy way of telling.
   
   I personally find all this, as Caligula supposedly found Gemellus's cough, very irritating. While I would not go so far as to suggest Caligula's remedy, I would certainly hope that enough people will expostulate with the author and/or publisher that it will be corrected in future editions.
   
   The rating is a compromise between five stars for content and two for style. If you're a music student, this review probably won't -- and shouldn't -- affect your purchasing decision; but if you read merely for pleasure, you may want to take note.



4. It's strange that with someone as famous as Bach that we really know very little about his personal life. In this book Martin Geck has written as much as we know, and has had to expand that with some of the generally accepted rumors. He has done a very good job in this area. That takes about a third of this book.
   
   The other two thirds of the book is on Bach's music. In this area, the book is absolutely supurb. Mr. Geck has been a professor of musicology at Dormund University. He has written about the other German major composers and now has produced this masterpiece on Bach.
   
   He covers every aspect of Bach's music from technique, to the impact on the listener. Surprisingly his analysis is not too technical so the average enthusiast can understant what he is saying. The last section of the book is called Horizons, and while fairly short (30 pages or so) he offers some opinions on Back's art, theology, symbolism and other aspects of his work that are seldom covered.



5. This book came to my attention from a long review of it that appeared in the
   Intl. Herald Tribune by William F Buckley of all people. It is all that he said and then some. It is clearly written for the expert, and so there is a lot that is beyond both my interest and abilities, but there is enough that I seek to keep me engaged. Now, I admit my interest in Bach is highly specialised: I am a novelist and seek to place Bach alongside Caspar David
   Friedrich, Germany's great romantic painter, and Goethe all in various settings, but mostly in Dresden, Leipzig and Luebeck, which this book turns out to be highly useful. Handsomely bound and highly readable. A wonderful addition to a serious reader's library.

1 comments about Beijing Confidential: A Tale of Comrades Lost and Found.

1. Jan Wong returns with a second sequel of sorts to "Red China Blues" with "Beijing Confidential". This book, along with "Jan Wong's China, Notes from a Not-So Foreign Correspondent",(1999) returns to Ms. Wong's stomping grounds of Beijing. Beijing Confidential is the more personal of the two, as on this trip she goes to expiate the sin of ratting out one of her fellow Beijing University students who approached her about getting to America, at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution. She takes on the near impossible task of finding this woman, apologizing to her and finding out what her life has been like. Written in Ms. Wong's concise, funny and informative style, Beijing Confidential repeats some of the content of Jan Wong's China, but its personal reportage redeems it. Neither book is available here in the US, but if you like Ms. Wong's work (and I do) both are available at Amazon Canada, and are worth purchasing!

2 comments about William Randolph Hearst: The Later Years, 1911-1951.

1. He was bigger than life and one innovative person ...maybe the first gorilla marketer whether you agreed with him or not. Great read.



2. WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST: THE LATER YEARS, 1911-1951 presents the second volume in a biography series which follows Hearst's life, and is a pick for college-level holdings which already have the first volume, as well as for college-level collections strong in media or journalism history. It surveys how Hearst built an empire of newspapers in nineteen of the largest cities in the U.S., and how his final forty years strengthened his hold. Previously unavailable letters and manuscripts, along with Hearst's own powerful political editorials, make for a powerful testimony not just to Hearst's life, but to the evolution of the newspaper as a whole, and its political impact on American lives.

4 comments about A Backward Glance: An Autobiography.

1. This autobiography which really gives a feel for the times in, which Wharton lived as well as for her own life experiences, contains some the most stunningly succinct annecdotes I've ever read. Wharton is truly brilliant at conveying the importance of literature in her life and sharing the possibilities of the literary life with her reader. She reaches through time to inform us of universals and redefine our value systems without being the least bit pedantic. She is a genius. And her autobiography is as entertaining and resonant as a great novel.



2. Such a lovely child, so patient and well behaved. New York and its society are made magic by her eyes. The opening sections of this memoir are a delight as Mrs. Wharton recounts the sights and feel of New York City in the 1870's. I liked it that she gave us a knee-high view of taking a walk with her beloved father and meeting his friends along the way. (She could never tell what the people's faces looked like, as her view only extended to their knees). Her total recall of her very best bonnet is amazing, and a very pretty bonnet it must have been.

   If there is such a person as a "born writer," Edith Wharton is that person. Before she could write, she made stories, and situations "flew around her head like mosquitoes." The world she lived in had no place or interest in a writing lady, so she made her own world, and it was a life-long undertaking.

   When Mrs. Wharton received her first acceptance of publication, she was so excited she "ran up and down the staircase in glee." I couldn't have been more surprised if I had read that George Washington played kickball in the back yard. Mrs. Wharton rarely lets you see anything but a very reserved and proper Victorian lady. Yet she did get a divorce (though it is never mentioned.), she lived almost her entire adult life abroad; she compartmentalized her friends like a butterfly collector, and had no interest in being part of the New York society she describes so well. When she was well into her writing career on a family visit to New York, she was invited to a dinner party where she was told a "Bohemian" would be one of the guests. When she got there, she discovered that she herself was the "Bohemian" in question.

   The book has a wonderful introduction by that fine author of New York manners, Louis Auchincloss, who is obviously fond of Mrs. Wharton, but not intimidated. Mrs. Wharton has a couple of insightful (and often hilarious) chapters on Henry James that are alone worth the price of the book. But then there are the "friends." I felt I was being buried in endless pages of formal introductions to people I had never heard of, who wrote books that were never read, who gave parties which are long forgotten, and men who were great conversationalists according to Mrs. Wharton, though the witticisms she quoted were so arch and refined, I felt they belonged in bad drawing room comedy.

   The book reads well, except for the stretches of introductions. Mrs. Wharton firmly believes that if you can't speak well of someone, you shouldn't speak of him or her at all. Not a bad idea at that




3. In this orderly collection of autobiographical sketches Edith Wharton - generously and with nearly photographic recall - begins by inviting readers into her early life in nineteenth-century New York. We are treated to its cast of characters, old New York, country life up the Hudson River, the clothes, the houses, and the remarkable (and unremarkable) personalities - Washington Irving was a friend of the family - as well as the sensibilities of a sociable, bright, and wonderfully observant little girl.

   Edith began to read so early that it surprised her upper-class (but unintellectual) family. Before long she became an "omnivorous reader," happiest plowing through the volumes of the classics in her father's library. She soon found that she required time alone - to invent characters, to make up stories. She knew that she had to write fiction - from childhood on, despite realizing by young adulthood that "in the eyes of our provincial society authorship was still regarded as something between a black art and a form of manual labor." Of the social imperative to closet one's writing urges she elaborates: "My father and mother were only one generation away from Sir Walter Scott, who thought it necessary to drape his literary identity in countless clumsy subterfuges, and almost contemporary with the Brontes, who shrank in agony from being suspected of successful novel-writing." The idle rich, Wharton makes clear, were intended to stay idle - and not busy themselves with writing, especially for (horrors!) pay. Her descriptions of her early popular successes are memorable.

   In subsequent chapters Wharton lays out her well-thought-out opinions regarding childhood, self-discovery, the formation of the writer's imagination and intellect, and the importance of finding one's own way - as an intellectual and as a social being. There is dry humor, too. She treasured good literature and good conversation - and pursued (and found) them throughout her life. She loved beautiful things and places, too. Finally, she describes her sojourns abroad (mainly England, France, and Italy) and the relationships and places that sustained her and nurtured her creativity, her productivity - and her soul.

   Lifelong friends play a central role in much of this memoir. She describes people well, without breaches of privacy or confidences. This is not at all limiting. She writes tenderly of the blossoming of her friendship with "American gentleman" Egerton Winthrop, a man of "cultivated intelligence," a shy, physically awkward man whom Wharton considered "the most perfect of friends." Others were George Cabot Lee, Vernon Lee, Howard Sturgis, Geoffrey Scott, Percy Lubbock, and most of all, Henry James, who is drawn wonderfully (and not uncritically) in this book. Of her friendship with James she remarks "The real marriage of two minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key, so that their joint glances at any subject cross like interarching search-lights."

   I loved this memoir, and greatly admired Wharton's ability to reveal herself and her world so fully and well.




4. Edith Wharton wrote "The Age of Innocence" (I believe it won the Pulitzer), the only fiction she wrote that I have truly liked--and an excellent book. She also wrote much nonfiction, and I have enjoyed her travel writing very much.

   In this book, Ms. Wharton reflects on her childhood and adulthood to middle age. (A short biography of her life is included in the introduction by Louis Auchincloss.) She speaks of her parents and growing up in 'Old New York' and living on the Gold Coast of New England with her husband.

   Ms. Wharton was a great friend of several men of letters who were prominent during her era, including Henry James. Her writing describes these relationships in part. She may have had an affair with one of them (not James), but unlike writers of today, more is not said than said. Mrs. Wharton divorced her husband in an era when it was not the best thing to do if one wished to remain a member of high society. She seems to have cast off New York society and moved to France to live permantly after her divorce. If you're interested in the story behind the story in "The Age of Innocence" this book is a good resource.

   In addition to her early years in America and later years in France, this book covers some of Ms. Wharton's travels in France and the Mediterranean. The most evocative sections cover her experiences in a trip to the French front in WWI. During WWI, she became a reporter and sent information to a New York newspaper on a regular basis.