When I began listening to jazz (more years ago than I want to think about), Martin Williams was a mentor. I used to read his magazine columns and reviWhen I began listening to jazz (more years ago than I want to think about), Martin Williams was a mentor. I used to read his magazine columns and reviews and, later on, his books. I learned much from Mr. Williams' writings but, as is almost inevitable, eventually I found my own paths of listening and set Martin Williams aside. I had my own ideas about listening and found some of his ideas contrary to mine. I felt that I didn't need Martin Williams' guidance any longer.
Recently, I decided to revisit what may be Mr. Williams' best work, The Jazz Tradition, to find out what I could learn from it all these years later. Well, it turned out that I still have much to learn. (As I get older, I'm happy to find that there's always more to learn.) Rereading this book, I found that I still have disagreements with Martin Williams. I don't buy into his idea that great music has have a "logical" basis. Mr. Williams never "got" John Coltrane: "I was, and am, repeatedly disengaged. After three or four minutes my attention wanders, and giving the records try after try does not seem to help." All I can say to that is that if you try to listen to Coltrane on a purely logical level, and leave out an emotional level, you're in trouble. At least Martin Williams was honest enough to admit his failure to connect with Coltrane's music but, if that was the case, why bother to write about it? That's the side of Martin Williams' writing that led me to leave it behind. To cop a title from an old Bob Newhart record, I felt as if I were reading The Button Down Mind of Martin Williams. There were a few other disagreements I had with Mr. Williams during my rereading. At one point in his essay on Duke Ellington, he writes that "One problem in Ellington's later career was that he sometimes ceased to work quite as closely with the specific talents of his players." I don't find that at all true, and I offer recordings such as Such Sweet Thunder, Blues in Orbit, The Queen's Suite, Far East Suite, and ...and his mother called him Bill, to name a few examples. He also states at one point that "(Ornette) Coleman has not, as I write, found his Tony Williams." All I can say in reply to that is to ask who were Billy Higgins, Edward Blackwell, and Charles Moffett? And, I might add, Philly Joe Jones was Miles Davis' Tony Williams before Tony Williams came along. And I can't agree with Mr. Williams' opinion of John Lewis' music, though he was persuasive enough that I am going to give some listening time to the Modern Jazz Quartet and to John Lewis' solo music.
All of this said, I'm very happy that I did reread The Jazz Tradition. There are are wonderfully thoughtful essays on King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and, most importantly for me, an essay on Jelly Roll Morton's music that will bear rereading many times. And, for me, there will also be much listening to follow up on the reading.
I read a library copy of the book before writing this review, but I plan to buy a copy of my own.
I'll end by quoting Martin Williams on Billie Holiday: "She was an actress. And she was a great musician. But she never had an act."...more
I read Things Fall Apart when I was in my 20's and recently decided to reread it all these years later. There are numerous reviews of the book on GoodI read Things Fall Apart when I was in my 20's and recently decided to reread it all these years later. There are numerous reviews of the book on Goodreads. All that I can add is that, for me, it's an emotionally true telling of a story about a man who is ruled by his pride, strength, and anger and how he and his society are torn apart by the outside forces of colonialism. It's an honestly written book and I hope that I gave it an honest reading. ...more
I read another edition of this entitled Lock 14 some years ago and gave it a four star rating. I'm not sure whether it's the result of a different traI read another edition of this entitled Lock 14 some years ago and gave it a four star rating. I'm not sure whether it's the result of a different translation or whether I'm more attuned to Simenon's Maigret novels these days, but my rating went up after this reading, as did my appreciation for the novel. Simenon's creation of the atmosphere of the locks along the Marne River and his description of the characters is masterful. Once again, the solution of the crime is secondary. It's not what a reader will remember when they finish reading this novel - at least the solution isn't what I will remember. ...more
I first read this when it was published in the U.S. - mid 80's - and decided to reread it when I read of W.P. Kinsella's passing. It still holds up. TI first read this when it was published in the U.S. - mid 80's - and decided to reread it when I read of W.P. Kinsella's passing. It still holds up. There are a couple of 3 star stories, some 4 stars, and some 5 stars. I'll give it 5 in memoriam of Mr. Kinsella....more
When I read a Raymond Chandler novel, I expect to find lines such as:
"I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets." or "He was a very small man, nWhen I read a Raymond Chandler novel, I expect to find lines such as:
"I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets." or "He was a very small man, not much more than five foot three and would hardly weigh as much as a butcher's thumb."
Then, I find, "I got down there about nine, under a high hard October moon that lost itself in the top layers of a beach fog", and I realize what a fine and true writer the man was.
While I was reading The Big Sleep, I thought of a similarity Raymond Chandler had with the gypsy Flamenco guitarist, Manitas de Plata. Flamenco purists criticized Manitas de Plata for not adhering to the strictures of traditional flamenco. The problem with that line of thought is that Manitas de Plata didn't give much of a damn about rules. He was interested in expressing the fire in his soul and, especially in his early recordings, he did just that.
One of the criticisms of The Big Sleep is that there's an unexplained/unsolved murder. When director Howard Hawks was filming the The Big Sleep , he supposedly asked Chandler, who killed the chauffer? Chandler replied that he didn't know, and the implication was that he didn't care. Raymond Chandler didn't write mysteries. By the end of most mysteries all of the loose ends have to be neatly tied up. Chandler wrote detective/crime novels and there may be loose ends, just as in real life where not all crimes are solved. Chandler was interested in people and atmosphere. Any questions about the solutions of mysteries were a secondary concern for him.
I last read The Big Sleep when I was in my early 20's - longer ago than I care to think about. I liked the book very much then and It hasn't lost any of its magic over the years. I enjoyed this reading even more, possibly because I'm a better reader than I was then. At least I hope that I am. ...more
For some people, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel in which the n-word is ubiquitous, and they reject it for that reason. I can understandFor some people, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel in which the n-word is ubiquitous, and they reject it for that reason. I can understand and respect those feelings. For me, however, the book is about learning and change.
Allow me to digress for a moment and relate an occurrence that I had forgotten about until this rereading of Huck Finn's (and Jim's) adventures. When I was four years old, I was riding on a bus in Minneapolis with my parents and my grandmother. I looked out the window, saw a Black man on the sidewalk and said, "there's a n." (I have no idea or memory of where or how I leaned that word at four years of age. I never heard my mother or father use it, so I'm guessing that I learned it from another child.) My grandmother immediately took me aside and told me gently that was a word I should never use because it hurt other people. My grandmother was a very smart person. Explaining to a four year old that using a word is wrong because it can be hurtful to other people has a much greater effect than merely telling him that it's wrong to use it. And her lesson had a lifelong effect on me. That word has never passed through my lips from that day to this.
Huck Finn had no one to teach that sort of lesson. He had to learn on his own, through experiencing violence, anger, hatred, and treachery, things that no young person should have to experience (though, unfortunately, many young people in the U.S. and around the world experience such occurrences every day). He did learn and he did change. For me - and for many other people, I'm sure - the actual climax of the novel comes when Huck makes a decision about helping Jim to escape:
"I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: 'All right then, I'll go to hell'",
For a 12 or 13 year old boy to make that decision (and for him it was a real and lifechanging one) is beyond my comprehension, but I believed it completely when I read it. For me, those are some of the most moving words in literature.
The novel continues beyond that climax with the return of Tom Sawyer and I found the many pages recounting his tomfoolery (please excuse the pun) to be annoying and tedious. Evidently, Mark Twain wanted to make a contrast of the fact that Tom Sawyer hadn't changed with the fact that Huck had become a different person. I suppose it's effective on that level.
I don't know if The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the Great American Novel or if there is such a thing. I do know that it is (at least for me) a great and important novel and I thank Mr. Mark Twain for writing it and for reminding me of an important event in my own life....more
This time through, I was struck by the fact that Penelope Lively somehow managed to make Claudia Hampton a likable charactOne of my rereads for 2020.
This time through, I was struck by the fact that Penelope Lively somehow managed to make Claudia Hampton a likable character (at least I felt that she was) although she considers almost every other person in her life to be beneath her - her brother and her lover being two exceptions. She basically abandons her daughter to the care of her two grandmothers, partly because she deems her uninteresting. She looks down on the father of her child because he's made a lot of money creating cheesy historical spectacles for television, yet when she's presented with the same opportunity, she takes the money and runs. I'm not sure how Ms. Lively managed to avoid making her thoroughly unlikable, but somehow she did. There are times when writers have a similarity to magicians.
"...eclecticism has always been my hallmark. That's what they've said, though it has been given other names. Claudia Hampton's range is ambitious, some might say imprudent: my enemies. Miss Hampton's bold conceptual sweep: my friends."
"Mythology is much better stuff than history. It has form; logic; a message. I once thought I was a myth. Summoned to the drawing-room, aged six or so, to meet a relative richer and more worldly than Mother, of whom Mother was in awe, I found myself swept up, held at arms' length by this gorgeous scented woman, exclaimed at: 'And here she is! The little myth! A real delicious red-haired green-eyed little myth!' Upstairs, I examined my hair and eyes in the nursery mirror. I am a Myth. I am Delicious. 'That'll do, Claudia," says nurse. 'Handsome is as handsome does.' But I am a Myth. I gaze at myself in satisfaction."
"Children are infinitely credulous. My Lisa was a dull child, but even so she came up with things that pleased and startled me. 'Are there dragons,' she asked? I said that there were not. 'Have there ever been?' I said that all the evidence was to the contrary. 'But if there is a word dragon,' she said, there must have been dragons.'" I could imagine Ali Smith writing that 20 years after this book was published.
"Of course, intelligence is always a disadvantage. Parental hearts should sink at the first signs of it. It was an immense relief to me that Lisa's was merely average. Her life has been the more comfortable. Neither her father nor I have had comfortable lives, though whether we would have wished them different is another matter. Gordon's (her brother) life has been intermittently uncomfortable, but then so, come to that, has Sylvia's (her sister-in-law), which would appear to destroy my theory about intelligence and happiness. Sylvia is profoundly stupid."
"We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of idle chatter we preserve Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norse; we carry a museum inside our heads, each day we commemorate peoples of whom we have never heard."
I've never had a desire to meet writers. Looking back, I think that I've only met one writer for anything more than a few minutes. However, if I could spend some time with any living writer, I believe that I would choose Penelope Lively. It would be fascinating to hear her expound on interests of hers of which I have no knowledge -archaeology, history, gardening, and whatever else she might wish to share. Strictly a fantasy, but fantasies can be interesting.
I raised my rating to five stars after thinking more about this book and writing my review....more
Another one of this year's re-reads. Five stars the first time out and five again this time'
I was interested that so much of the novel was spent on thAnother one of this year's re-reads. Five stars the first time out and five again this time'
I was interested that so much of the novel was spent on the two characters who were the least likable - Laura and Tom - and that the two characters I found most likable - Kate and Nellie - were relatively ignored. I found myself wondering whether Ms. Lively found Laura and Tom more interesting or whether she wanted to draw attention to Kate and Nellie through the contrast of not focusing her considerations on them. Perhaps some of each is true....more
First read Confederacy of Dunces the year it was published. It was recommended to me by a bookstore owner - a tip of the cap to Mr. Mike McCabe. DecidFirst read Confederacy of Dunces the year it was published. It was recommended to me by a bookstore owner - a tip of the cap to Mr. Mike McCabe. Decided to reread it this year after my buddy Jeff Crompton posted a review on Goodreads. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... Jeff has great taste - often times better than mine -so I figured I should reread the novel. Thanks, Jeff.
Over my lifetime, I've known people who have some of the qualities found in Ignatius J. Reilly, Burma Jones, and Santa Battaglia, and I've tried to keep a clear distance between myself and them. Needless to say, if I saw real life versions of any of these characters coming toward me I'd cross the street immediately. But refracted through Mr. Toole's writing, these are three of the most hilarious characters I've ever encountered in fiction. Rereading Confederacy took longer than expected. I had to close the book many times because I was laughing so hard. Not many novels have that affect on me.
Looking quickly over the ratings on Goodreads, I see many five stars and many one stars. Put me in with the fivers. The one star folks obviously have more refined sensibilities than I do. Bless em....more
A Crime in Holland-Reread in (I believe) a different translation. The previous title was Maigret in Holland. The original French title was Un Crime enA Crime in Holland-Reread in (I believe) a different translation. The previous title was Maigret in Holland. The original French title was Un Crime en Hollande. The difference in English translation titles is important, because the novel concerns Maigret's investigation of a murder in a small town in Holland, where the authorities and the people of the town would like the murder to be forgotten and life to go on as it was. Maigret, of course, has another agenda. As in most of the Inspector Maigret novels, the identity of the murderer is relatively unimportant. What is important is the psychology of the characters and their interactions, both among themselves and, most importantly, with Maigret, and that's whet you'll find here. If you're looking for a whodunit, look elsewhere....more
My rereading of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page came about in a somewhat unusual fashion. A month and a half ago, I read Henning Mankell’s After the FireMy rereading of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page came about in a somewhat unusual fashion. A month and a half ago, I read Henning Mankell’s After the Fire. At the beginning of that novel a retired doctor loses literally all of his possessions when his house burns down. Being the type of person I am, I immediately began to imagine what I would do if all of my possessions were destroyed. (I did imagine that the people I love and care about would still be with me.) Would I change my way of life? Would I feel freer, or perhaps be devastated and close down? Would I wear different clothes than I wear now? And so on. Eventually, I came to my book and record collections. I have way too many LPs and CDs – I won’t say how many, but more than any sane person needs. I have many fewer books - I’ve rid myself of much of my collection over the past ten years – but still have more than I probably need. I began thinking about which recordings and which books I’d replace if all were destroyed; and if I wouldn’t replace them, why do I have them now? (It should be obvious that I spend way too much time daydreaming and speculating.) I shared my thoughts with a good friend who’s also a record collector and he set my mind at ease by saying, “I enjoy listening to my records. and life is to be enjoyed” That settled my mind about my record collection. I enjoy listening even more than I enjoy reading. My books were another story. I have shelves of books that I’ve read and enjoyed, but I’ve never been one for rereading books, except in rare cases. Thankfully, I remembered Betsy Robinson’s review of 2019 on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... in which she writes about the pleasures of rereading books. I decided then that I would begin rereading some of my favorite books.
All of this is a long winded introduction of my rereading of G.B. Edwards’ novel (and only novel), which I thought of as my favorite novel, based on my memory of reading it 39 years ago. I bought the book in 1981, the year of its first U.S. publication at Mike McCabe’s book shop (a great place) in Salisbury, Ct., probably at his recommendation. After I read (and loved) the book, it sat on my shelf, unread, for 39 years. When I decided that I would begin rereading the books that I had kept, this was an obvious choice, although I had some fears that my opinion of it might have changed, simply because I've changed over the past 39 years.
If you’ve read the basic description of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, you’ll know that it’s an old man’s telling of his life on the Island of Guernsey. It’s the tale of a long life lived – sometimes well, sometimes not as well as might be hoped, but always lived honestly. And Ebenezer’s telling is always honest. I imagine that everyone has encountered the conundrum of, is it the singer or the song? Here, it’s is it the telling or the tale? In this case, it is definitely the telling, and G.B. Edwards has guided his narrator, Ebenezer Le Page (French Le and English Page, incidentally) masterfully. There are passages throughout the novel which made me laugh, brought tears to my eyes (both tears of sadness and joy). And made me stop and think.
“Guernsey, Guernesey, Garnsai, Sarnia: so they say. Well, I don’t know, I’m sure. The older I get and the more I learn, the more I know I don’t know nothing, me. I am the oldest on the island, I think. Liza Queripel from Pleinmont say she is older; but I reckon she is putting it on. When she was a young woman, she used to have a birthday once every two or three years; but for years now she have been having two or three a year.”
The aftermath of an argument (a physical fight, actually) among three sisters over who would inherit their dead mother's wedding dress for their future daughters and, incidentally, her widow's veil. His mother made the decision that she would take the wedding dress and the veil: "It turned out for the best, in a way. My sister was married in the wedding-dress and looked lovely. La Prissy had a second, but it was a boy again when she wanted a girl; and, after Raymond, La Hetty couldn't have any more. The dress would have been wasted; and it wasn't so many years before my mother had to wear the widow's veil. Ah well, in the midst of life we are in death, as it say in the Bible."
After another death: "There was a share-out of the few things left; but there was no trouble. ... My Aunt Prissy said I could choose anything I liked, because I had grown to be such a fine strong boy. I chose the two china dogs on the mantelpiece. They are on my own mantelpiece at this moment. I like my two china dogs. When I write down anything wicked, one of them look very serious; but the other one, he wink."
"By rights, it was Jack Bourgaize who ought to have been Raymond's father; but then Raymond wouldn't have been Raymond. He was one of those who ought never to have been born; but, at any rate, I wonder how many of us ought to have been born?"
"I don't want to say anything against my Cousin Mary Ann, because in her old age she was one of my very best friends, and you didn't notice her looks as an old woman; but when she was young, she was downright ugly."
" I wish I could remember the sermon my great-aunt preached that night; but I laughed so much, it went clean out of my head. I remember the text, 'Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to destruction; but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth unto salvation.' I knew there was something like that in the Bible, but I thought at the time she'd got it the wrong way round. Or perhaps it was me who got it the wrong way round."
"One of the girls said, 'Aren't you lonely in the winter living here all by yourself?' 'I'm used to being on my own,' I said. One of the chaps said. 'Why don't you have a dog to keep you company?' 'It would die,' I said. 'Or a cat,' said one of the girls. 'I don't like cats,' I said. 'They are bad.' I told them about Mirouse, the cat my mother used to have. He was a beautiful big black cat with a white shirt-front; but he was a robber. In the end, in spite of my mother, my father said he would have to go. He would drown him. So one night he tied a brick around his neck and threw him in the Vale Pond. 'Now there will be some food left in the cupboard when I come home from work tomorrow,' said my father; but he was wrong. The next morning when he looked out of the bedroom window. there was Minouse! He had drunk all the water and was sitting on the brick."
"That is how I come to be writing this book. I got to say what I think to somebody if only to myself. I don't expect anybody will ever read what I have written; but at the back of my mind I always have the hope perhaps some day somebody will. Tonight...I'm looking forward to beginning a new chapter. I like to start on a clean page and forget all the mistakes I have made before."
When I opened the book to begin my rereading, I found a newspaper review by Guy Davenport which I had cut out and placed inside it 39 years before and had forgotten about. In the review, Mr. Davenport writes, "Gerald Basil Edwards (1899-1976) finished this book in 1974, only to have it turned down - incredibly- by publisher after publisher. Yet The Book of Ebenezer Le Page is one of the best novels of our time." And at the end of the review: "This is the first novel of a projected trilogy, which will now never exist, but which might have been completed if even one publisher had been perceptive enough to recognize what a masterpiece he was rejecting."
When you open this novel, after John Fowles' introduction (at least Fowles' intro is there in my edition), you will find a page which is blank except for the following in large lettering:
The Property of Neville Falla
It's a strange citation to find at the beginning of a novel. If you read The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, you'll discover what it means. It's worth the search.
And, yes - the Book of Ebenezer Le Page is still my favorite novel.
edit - I don't know if after all of these words I need to add a few more, but I forgot that in addition to the copy I already have, I plan to get a copy of the NYRB paperback simply because of the cover illustration by R.B. Kitaj, an artist whose work I always enjoy seeing.
edit - 10/22. I did pick up a copy of the paperback with R.B. Kitaj's cover illustration, and the next time I reread Ebenezer, I'll read that one.....more
p. 56 - Suzanne's marital history remained unrevealed to the Mannings, even after five years' association with her. It was rumored that she had had twp. 56 - Suzanne's marital history remained unrevealed to the Mannings, even after five years' association with her. It was rumored that she had had two husbands. Mark's view was that she had probably eaten them.
p. 65 - Never having been in close contact with the institution, Carrie had a puzzled respect for matrimony. Everyone seemed to want it, but most people who'd got it seemed to be complaining about it.
p. 114 - How all this could end except in tears (his probably) he had no idea but he simply didn't care.
p. 129 - He was a married man yearning for a woman who was not his wife; his main preoccupation was that he could not have her and his secondary one was that given that he couldn't then he could not endure the idea that anyone else could. Betrayal and selfishness, all in one go. He didn't even want her to be happy, since any presumed happiness of hers would exclude him. It is far from true, he thought bitterly, that love is an ennobling emotion.
p. 145 - 'She has the educational attainments of a check-out girl at Marks and Spencer. She has read about five books in her life. She can't spell. She doesn't know if the Prime Minister is Labour or Conservative. She isn't even pretty. And you're in love with her.' 'Up to a point', said Mark. Diana snorted. 'Up to a point, my foot. I thought better of you, frankly.'
p. 145 - 'You told her, he said. 'She asked', said Carrie, 'if we had or not.' 'And you told her we had.' 'What else could I have said?' 'Various things,' said Mark at last. 'You always tell the truth, don't you? Now I know what it is that's so disturbing about you.'
Every guy in his 40's who is contemplating having an affair with a younger woman would do well to read this novel.
Read for the second time. I upgraded my rating....more
Read this many years ago when I was in college and recently had the urge to read it again. During this reading I thought of Micheal Dirda relating a cRead this many years ago when I was in college and recently had the urge to read it again. During this reading I thought of Micheal Dirda relating a conversation he had with Oscar Hijuelos:
"Later the novelist and I talked about publishing, the Irish comic genius Flann O'Brien, Hemingway: 'If you're building cabinets,' said Hijuelos of In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises, 'you want to look at the work of a master cabinetmaker.'"...more
If you're a pianist, you'll probably love reading this book. If you're not a pianist, you'll probably still love reading it.
August 2019 - I read this If you're a pianist, you'll probably love reading this book. If you're not a pianist, you'll probably still love reading it.
August 2019 - I read this eighteen years ago when it was published and just reread it. It remains one of my favorite books. And still deserves five stars.
At one point, the author was walking home in Paris and "heard loud piano music surging from an open window. As I drew closer I recognized Beethoven's Diabelli Variations being played forcefully and with a strange urgency. … In my excitement I wanted to stop passersby and make them take notice: 'Hey, listen to this! This is a phenomenal Beethoven!'" I guess that could only happen in Paris (or perhaps in a similar environment). It surely wouldn't occur in my neck of the woods. This book is filled with similar vignettes, which make it a delight to read.
As I reached the conclusion of the book, I didn't want it to end. I look forward to the next time I read it.
Pianos, people, and Paris - I couldn't ask for more.
Recommended to anyone who truly loves books and reading or to anyone who still writes letters or enjoys reading other folks' letters. These letters arRecommended to anyone who truly loves books and reading or to anyone who still writes letters or enjoys reading other folks' letters. These letters are good ones and may even inspire you to write a few of your own.
Reread in June, 2020.
I pulled this off the shelf yesterday and read it (for probably the fourth time since I bought it 40 years ago) yesterday afternoon.
A bit of trivia at the outset: I had always assumed that Helene Hanff's first name was pronounced Heh-Lean. A few years ago, I saw a YouTube video in which a gentleman who knew her stated that her name was pronounced Heh-Layne, in the European manner, as he put it. And very recently, I saw her obituary in the New York Times which backed that up. So, until I find out otherwise, she'll be Heh-Layne to me.
Probably anyone who has an interest in reading this book will know that it consists of exchanges of letters between Ms. Hanff and primarily (though some others slip an occasional letter in), Frank Doel, who was a book buyer for Marks & Co., a book shop in London. I'll just comment here that if I received one letter like the ones she sent, it would make my year. No - it would make my decade. Letter writing is a lost art, probably never to be recovered, but at least these have been preserved for us to read.
Helene Hanff was a better writer than I can ever hope to be, so:
"Will you please translate your prices hereafter? I don't add too well in plain American. I haven't a prayer of ever mastering bilingual arithmetic."
"I hope 'madam' (as she was addressed in an early reply from Marks & Co.) doesn't mean over there what it does here."
"I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to 'I hate to read new books,' and I hollered 'Comrade!' to whoever owned it before me."
"A newspaper man I know, who was stationed in London during the war, says tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they go looking for. I told him that I'd go looking for the England of English literature, and he said: 'Then it's there.'"
"Thank you again for the beautiful book. I shall try very hard not to get gin and ashes all over it, it's really much too fine for the likes of me.
"WHAT KIND OF A PEPYS' DIARY DO YOU CALL THIS? this is not pepys' diary. this is some busybody editor's miserable collection of EXCERPTS from pepys' diary may he rot. I could just spit. where is jan.12, 1668, where his wife chased him out of bed and round the bedroom with a hot poker?"
From a letter to a friend who was appearing in a play in London: "I fail to see why you did not understand that groceryman, he did not call it 'ground ground nuts,' he called it 'ground ground-nuts' which is the only really SENSible thing to call it. Peanuts grow in the GROUND and are therefore GROUND-nuts, and after you take them out of the ground you grind them up and you have ground ground-nuts, which is a much more accurate name than peanut butter, you just don't understand English. XXX h. hanff girl etymologist"
"Or didn't I ever tell you that I write arty murders for Ellery Queen on television? All my scripts have artistic backgrounds - ballet, concert hall, opera - and all of the suspects and corpses are cultured. maybe I'll do one about the rare book business in your honor, you want to be the murderer or the corpse?"
"DO YOU MEAN TO SIT THERE AND TELL ME YOU'VE BEEN PUBLISHING THESE MAMMOTH CATALOGUES ALL THESE YEARS AND THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU EVER BOTHERED TO SEND ME ONE? THOU VARLET! Don't remember which restoration playwright called everybody a varlet, i always wanted to use it in a sentence."
Helene Hanff signed many of her letters, hh. Besides being the initials of her name, those letters could stand for humanity and humor.
I look forward to my next visit to the pages of this book.
Edit - June 8, 2023 - Last year, I reconnected with a friend with I'd lost touch for over 20 years. The fault in losing touch was mine and I was happy that she accepted my apology for losing touch and that we were able to resume our friendship. She's a calligrapher and a designer and she insisted that we correspond through letters rather than through the internet. The result of that is that I receive wonderful letters and notes written in calligraphic style. I've wondered what the woman who delivers our mail thinks about them? Unfortunately, my handwriting is such that my friend receives computer generated printed letters, though they do arrive in the mail. It's a lovely thing to receive "real" letters once again....more
Perhaps it's because I'm getting older, but the first thing I turn to in the morning when I read The New York Times - with the possible exception of tPerhaps it's because I'm getting older, but the first thing I turn to in the morning when I read The New York Times - with the possible exception of the crossword puzzle - is the obituary page. Unfortunately, no one writing obituaries for The Times today is the equal of Robert McG. Thomas Jr. Robert McG. Thomas Jr. was a master of writing obituaries, and came to that specialty late in his newspaper career. Thomas was the master of the hook (I don't know if that's what it's called in the newspaper world, but that's what I call it) - a lead sentence or two that would grab his readers and not let them stop reading until they'd finished reading the entire obituary. Consider:
"Anton Rosenberg, a storied sometime artist and occasional musician who embodied the Greenwich Village hipster ideal of 1950's cool to such a laid-back degree and with such determined detachment that he never amounted to much of anything, died on feb. 14 at a hospital near his home in Woodstock, N.Y."
or
"The Rev. Louis A Saunders, who spent half a century as such a quietly dedicated minister, missionary and religious official that he became known chiefly for a single, instinctive act of Christian duty, died on April 5 at his home in suburban Dallas. He was 88 and the man who gave Lee Harvey Oswald a Christian burial."
Or, if you want to read the obituary of Edgar Nollner, who traveled by dog sled in 1925 across Alaska with a supply of serum to save the 1,429 residents of Nome from the ravagages of diptheria while the nation followed through radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines, you'll find it here.
If you want to read the obituary of Emil Sitka, the favorite foil of the Three Stooges, you'll find it here.
As the title implies, there are 52 obituaries written by Robert McG. Thomas Jr. in this book, so you can read one every week for a year, or a few at a time, or all at once, as you choose. However you read them, you'll probably come back and reread them over time.
Oh - I should mention that there are actually 53 obituaries in this book. The 53rd is the obituary of Robert McG. Thomas Jr. as it appeared in The Times on January 8, 2000, after his passing. He didn't write it and it's not quite as good as any of the obituaries he wrote. That's as it should be.
Update - Rereading some of the pieces in this collection (there are many more good ones than I'd remembered), I thought about how an obituary should be more than a memorial to a person's life. Ideally, it should be a celebration of a life. Even an "average person" (which includes most of us in some sense or another) has had moments and stories that deserve to be remembered, celebrated, and passed on. Robert McG. Thomas Jr. knew this. Most of the people he eulogized had a bright moment in their lives that perhaps the "average person" hasn't had, but all of us have had some sort of special moment or story which should be celebrated.
While I was reading, I thought about "The Man Who Picked the Wildwood Flower", a song that Merle Haggard recorded which touches on all of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Fv3......more