serial to Vanity Fair; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour; radio satellite tour)
Expanding on an article that originated in the pages of Vanity Fair, Margolick (At the Bar, 1995) traces the relationships
between "Strange Fruit" (a 1930s ballad describing a lynching), Billie Holiday (its best-known interpreter), and those who heard it sung by her. In 1937 a New York union publication printed a poem entitled "Bitter Fruit" that described the sight of a lynching. The writer, Abel Meeropol, was a 27-year-old communist and schoolteacher who frequently set his own words to music. He did so once more with the poem, and when a director from Caf‚ Society (the progressive Greenwich Village nightspot) heard the song and brought it to the attention of Holiday, she added it—now known as "Strange Fruit"—to her repertoire. The song was an immediate sensation (the political left, in particular, took it up almost as a kind of anthem), although it appears that Holiday herself was initially unaware of what precisely it was describing. Margolick quickly sorts through the much-argued particulars that led to the meeting of song and singer—and which led in turn to the confrontation between Holiday’s audience and the subject. The story of how white impresarios pushed an already-notorious black performer to sing about something as barbarous as lynching makes the first third of the book fascinating cultural history. The pages documenting reaction to the song over the years quote sources ranging from Civil War historian Shelby Foote to pop musician Natalie Merchant and—like the book as a whole—have a where-were-you-when-you-first-heard-it tone that gives them the earnest, if lightweight, feel of a network documentary. Although Margolick falls considerably short of the ambitions suggested by his subtitle, he nevertheless captures divergent stories of song and singer that will appeal to fans of Holiday and pop history. (14 b&w photos) (First printing of 50,000; first
serial to Vanity Fair; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour; radio satellite tour)Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7624-0677-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Running Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
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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