This book is written by people who know east Texas. It covers disappearing lands, rivers and animals like no other book on the area. Full of natural lore, local wonders and peculiar stories, it fills you with a bit of Texas' natural legacy.

It's a hardcover, so not the most comfortable field guide to throw in a backpack, but I don't have any other complaints about this book.

Animal profiles are accompanied by excellent color photographs, basic statistics about each animal (distribution, habitat, abundance, etc.), and a shaded map outlining just where each animal's distribution is. Entries for each animal are detailed enough, but don't seem to go on so long that a person would lose interest.

One more gripe: pictures of the animals feet, so that pawprints could be identified easily, would have been a welcome inclusion here. The Simon and Schuster's Guide To Mammals, by Boitani, is an inexpensive book that includes this feature. It might be a helpful second book to get on the topic.

It's an exciting book for young naturalists, too, who will likely get stirred up just by seeing some of the photos (star-nosed mole, northern flying squirrel, big brown bat, etc.).

Essays on conservation, the region, and tips on observation precede the main body of the book. The essays are short and well-written. They should be helpful to anyone who wants to scout out some mammals in the Carolinas, Virginia, or Maryland.

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Although I have reservations, Simon Louvish's *Man on the Flying Trapeze* is a thoroughly competent job, strong in many areas. Louvish paints the vaudeville show circuit out of which Fields's later inimitable character was born with just the right amount of detail. Fields's earliest years were spend both in America and in Europe as one of a series of variety acts presented as part of an evening's performance (he was often on stage for only 12 minutes), and Louvish recreates this ambiance with some deftness, not easy to do when researching materials 90 years old. The Ziegfeld Follies live again! Similarly, by the time Fields starts in motion pictures in 1915, and with an explicitness that grows throughout the book, Louvish gets behind Fields's connection with the studios that filmed him. Chapter 23 on the now obscure producer J. P. McEvoy is a great piece of detective work: here is a key figure who underlies most of Fields's most sympathetic satirical postures.

Louvish doesn't claim to have figured out what he cannot: what caused the breakdown of Fields's marriage to Hattie Hughes? A biography that does include many of Fields's well-known lines--"Have you had this tooth pulled before?"--and reprises the best skits has much else to relish: e. g., the movie studio atmosphere and the hilarious objections to Fields's then-too-smutty-but-now-tame-enough gags. Louvish represents dutifully if a little thinly Fields's decline from illnesses brought on by alcoholism.

Now a few cavils. We need more on why William Claude Dukenfield was able to transform his life into comedy. Why could he and not others sublimate his anger and tensions first into juggling and then into physical and finally verbal humor? If the book needs the inspiration of genius to answer this point, that nevertheless is what a Fields fan wants. It also needs a fuller, richer aesthetic and intellectual context in appraising Fields's films. Less consequentially, Louvish on occasion needs more distance from Fields; adopting the master's voice in the narrative ("Never give a sucker an even break, particularly when he might be your biographer," p. 165) blurs the vision instead of clarifying it. There are a few factual errors: *Babbitt* was published in 1922, not 1921; the poem on p. 388 that Louvish thinks is Fields's was written by Ogden Nash (surely the W. W. Norton Company has editors for such details?)

Nevertheless, *Man on the Flying Trapeze* is an entertaining and illuminating biography, and I am grateful for it. Godfrey Daniel!

I really cannot understand why someone would give this book a bad review.

FIRST - It is rare that there is a book written about THE GREAT MAN. We should give a hearty handclap to those who take the time to revisit such a great comedian and orginal personality.

SECOND - It is rare that a book would be honest enough to say where it's shortcomings may be. Meaning that, much to my and I'm sure other peoples amusement, our friend W.C. did a lot of tall-tale telling in his day. It is hard to decifer where truth on his life lay. Louvish checks with all resources to find whre the turth may be. He had access to family members, W.C.'s own scrapbooks, library archives, etc. He presents the book in the begining as a sort of mystery - and that's what it is. Even W.C.'s own authorized bio is full of holes and tall tales - and Louvish proves it. Those who are familiar with THE GREAT MAN know that even he fouled up his own tale telling at times.

THIRD - This book is not only a biography but a historical account. A good biography should not only tell the story of a person but should also give you points of reference in regards to time, event, people & places. Louvish does this. He gives you helpful background on key people and places in W.C.'s life. It allows the reader to understand the subject clearer. And this information is presented clear and concise - not as a "filler" for the text.

FOURTH - For those who feel that Louvish is being a "wiseguy" by the way he writes I ask you to think about who the subject matter is! One of the biggest and most original wiseguy of them all. I feel it makes the book more personal and fun to read.

If you're a fan of Fields you read it & judge for yourself. However, unlike some more ignorant folk, you must remember that ANY biography is not an "end all" to who that person is. A personality is a many layered thing, and so is telling the story of someones' life.

Take the book as it is. An enjoyable journey into the world of W.C Fields. You may learn something new, or you may not. However I'm sure you'll enjoy!

This book is a pleasant change from the usual run of show-biz biographies, most of which seem to concentrate on dishing the dirt. I remember one fantastically irritating bio of Danny Kay, which spent most of its length speculating on Kay's sexual orientation, the only issue that appeared to interest the author. Mr. Louvish, however, is a gentleman, in the best sense of the word. His interest is not in scandal, but in what made Fields famous in the first place--his work. He doesn't stint Fields' dark side, but his sympathy and intelligence never leads him into excess, either. He shows how Fields' experiences shaped his comic persona and takes a certain pleasure in exploding--very plausibly--several myths that Fields carefully constructed. His research includes a careful study of Fields' silent films and shows how Fields' film work was based on his stage work. It is a heroic story, really, of how this uneducated but gifted man triumphed over poor health, an unhappy marriage, the censors, his alcoholism and especially, himself, to create lasting pleasure for millions. You will understand and appreciate a lot more about Fields and his work after you read this book, which is the definition of what a biography of any artist should be, but too seldom is. Undoubtedly the definitive biography.

I first stumbled across this book at my grandfather's place back when I was nine years old. Of all the role models I could have picked up, this was probably the worst one yet. Monti spins the story of her fourteen years with Fields pretty much as if it were right out of one of his movies. Her depiction of Fields is a mishmash of Souse and Cuthbert J. Twillie, and her recounting of certain scenes (either in his presence or told to her secondhand) is absolutely hysterical. Once I stumbled, once again, across Ronald Fields' "W.C. Fields By Himself" and "The Man on the Flying Trapeeze," I got the feeling that Miss Monti may have been taking pains to rewrite history to conform both to the public image Fields so desperately kept up *and* her own involvement in it. Read it the way you would watch a Fields movie, but don't expect any in-depth look at his personality or mystique; after reading other biographical works, it's hard to doubt that Fields was doing more than using her for sex and as a sounding board for his gags and routines.

Carlotta Monti was WC Fields's mistress for a number of years. Her book is not a great book. 'Fortunes and Follies' is more entertaining if sometimes lacking in accuracy. 'Fields by Himself' is fascinating. This book treats only portions of the artist's life and career. Still I recommend Monti's book because it gives a fresh woman's perspective and helps humanise Fields. This should not be the first or only book on Mr Fields one reads. Those who are seriously interested in the great comedian should, however, find time for this memoir.

Gehring's book is like a text book. Like a thesis. It's good on that level; but there's always the ultimate question: Why analyze comedy at all? Once you start to explain it on a serious, scientific level, you've drained it from all it's fun. This book will help understand W.C. Fields & Groucho's worth in the history of Comedy and Satire, but it won't win them new fans. I love Groucho & W.C. Fields; I think they were brilliant, geniuses and true artists. But this book with it's text book, scientific style, is drab and makes you wonder what is so funny about them. If you really want to know and enjoy W.C. Fields & Groucho, watch their films.

Beginners would probably find this book frustrating, as it has no pictures and relies on familiarity with botanical terms. However, If you are willing to learn the terms and parts of plant anatomy, this guide is fairly easy to use, particularly for genus level identification. The one frustrating part of this book is that the index only refers to scientific names. So going back and forth between scientific and common can be a bit of a hassle.

W.C. Fields' grandson, Ronald Fields, draws on the comic's biography, movie plots and sayings to illustrate key business principles. He covers such topics as leadership, creativity and innovation, managing change, effective teamwork, delegation, budgeting, office politics and communication. Many of the ideas for business success are familiar - but the link with W.F. Fields makes them novel and entertaining. Appropriately, the book is written in a breezy style that makes it enjoyable to read, and Fields includes a summary of key principles at the end of each chapter. We at ... particularly like the collection of W.C. Fields' humorous sayings at the end of the book. Even though some ideas and, for shame, even some sentences are repeated, the book has broad appeal for anyone who likes business and loves to laugh. If you're thinking stocking stuffer or get-well gift, this'll do.

While the Natural History Section of this Book is fine, with modest detail on the plants and animals, the book goes down hill when it get to History and Land Use Issues. The author seems extremely vindictive against the Mountain Cattlemen of Victoria, perhap a reflection of her battles with them as a member of the Victoria National Parks Association. Her bias shows up in many ways, such as those that agree with her are "caring" or "enlightened", those against her are "uninformed" or "greedy." Then again it seems the only self interested parties in the land use conflicts, in her view, are the Cattlemen (especially) and the loggers, but never the Greens, which is baloney of the first order. In total the book could have done better by sticking to the natural history aspect and steering clear of controversy.

Carlotta Monti "shacked up" with Fields during the 1930's until his death on Christmas Day of 1945. (I may be wrong on the date)
In this book, she weaves a bizarre tale of "lover's spats", road trips, Fields battle with alcohol, etc. It sounds more like she was really after his money. Still, there are some snippets of comedy from greats like Edgar Bergan (of Charlie McCarthy fame) director Gregory LaCava and comic Grady Sutton. The film version starred Valerie Perrine as Monti and Rod Steiger as Fields. It was a flat as a stale glass of beer.