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NINE SCORPIONS IN A BOTTLE

Name: NINE SCORPIONS IN A BOTTLE
Author: Max Lerner
ISBN: 1-55970-168-4

GREAT JUDGES AND CASES OF THE SUPREME COURT

by Max Lerner ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 1994

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We'd like to believe that our highest court is an ivory tower, its members dispensing justice outside the realm of politics and power. Max Lerner, a venerable journalist and Court watcher who died in 1992, knew better. This collection of essays spans his career: his youthful opposition to the Court that opposed FDR's New Deal; his belief in the 1950s that, though guilty, the Rosenbergs should not have been executed; his opposition to the ``plebiscitary trend'' that scotched the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. The constant throughout is Lerner's commitment to a balance between judicial restraint and judicial activism, and to independent thinking. Facing his second Supreme Court nomination, Clinton might do well to bear in mind Lerner's definition of the ``passionately judicial temperament'': ``a flexible mind, a compassion for the walking wounded, a refusal to be cowed by power, a capacity to live with the contradictions of life and to separate the permanent from the transient.''

Pub Date: July 15, 1994

ISBN: 1-55970-168-4

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Arcade

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.