Every week, from Oct. 3, 1964 to Oct. 2, 1965, John O'Hara wrote a syndicated column. His contract ran for one year and was not renewed; he wouldn't take a pay cut and the syndicate wasn't making enough money out of him. Reading the collected columns explains why. O'Hara is not about to adopt any Dale Carnegie stance to woo agreement. He warned his readership of this right from the start and proved it in the second column, in which he said that the anti-cigarette advertising was getting as ridiculous as the hard sell tobacco commercials had been. Later, he looked into the Community Chest and didn't like what he found. He does admire de Gaulle, but the Kennedy family not at all. Prince Philip's occupational grousing annoyed him. He laughed at Lady Bird's trial flight as a literary critic. He didn't care for either Edward R. Murrow or Adlai Stevenson in life and saw no reason to change his mind when they died. He felt that on at least one occasion, Martin Luther King got way out of line. O'Hara squabbled vigorously and personally all over a full range of irritations. Some of his critics found him arrogant and captious in roughing up other brand name authors. He needles Liberals unmercifully and thumps the Republican tub. But he did have a readership some delighted, and others who read him to feel their blood pressure rise it hasn't since Westbrook Pegler stopped ranting, and this is The Compleat Curmudgeon in print.
Pub Date: April 14, 1966
ISBN: 0451031962
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
