This selective, chrono-topical guide "to the subject matter and literature of black history and culture" is more comprehensive, somewhat more up-to-date, much more evaluative, and certainly no less anthoritative than Fisher's revision of Miller's The Negro in America (1970) or Homer and Swartout's Books About the Negro (also 1970), two of the most useful general black bibliographies around. The McPherson et al. guide, which offers self-contained, interdisciplinary bibliographic essays on 100 broad topics (slave revolts, Jim Crow, Marxist historians on Black Reconstruction, soul music, Black Power), is very much a Princeton production: all but one of the five authors teach there, most of the books and articles cited can be found in the University library, and the guide grew out of a Princeton undergraduate seminar on black life in America. This should be particularly helpful as a curriculum pi:tuning aid in the black studies area on both the secondary and university levels; moreover, it successfully complements such standard lists as Work's famous bibliography and the invaluable dictionary catalog of New York Public's Schomburg collection. For the moment at least, Blacks in America must be considered the best one-volume bibliographic guide to black literature available.
Pub Date: Nov. 19, 1971
ISBN: 0385025696
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1971
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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