These letters were my companion as I read "Genius in Disguise", Kunkel's wonderful biography of Harold Ross. The biography tells the story of Ross and his founding and development of The New Yorker. These letters bring Ross to life and convey the personality that spotted and nurtured the talent that made the magazine great. Here's a quick letter to John Cheever in 1947, which gives a little flavor of the man:

"Dear Cheever:
I've just read "The Enormous Radio," having gone away for a spell and got behind, and I send my respects and admiration. The piece is worth coming back to work for. It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish. Very wonderful, indeed."
As ever,
Ross

I've long been a fan of The New Yorker altho the drawings and not the too lengthy articles are my favorites now.

Have read most of the books about working at the magazine, but this is the best. Harold Ross had such a way with words. I particularly liked the letter of sympathy to E.B. White (page 97) upon death of White's father: "...after you get to be thirty people you know keep dropping off all the time and it's a hell of a note." And about Christmas: "...it always comes at the very worse moment in the year for me."

Here is truly a genius at work. I thought it was ironic also that although he said don't waste time writing letters as you don't get paid for them, he wrote them so well. It is also interesting that the editor of this book finally found some recordings that Ross made and he was dictating letters!

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys The New Yorker and would like to know how it developed over the years.

Even more than Kunkel's brilliant biography "Genius in Disguise," this book offers special insights into "New Yorker" founder and editor Harold Ross, not only a seminal figure in American letters but a sardonic wit reminiscent of H.L. Mencken, one of the people with whom he frequently exchanged letters. (Indeed, the sweep of his correspondence, from "New Yorker" stalwarts like E.B. White and his wife Katherine to Dorothy Parker and James Thurber all the way to John O'Hara, Harpo Marx, various state governors and other polticos, President Truman, and Premier Nehru, is impressive in itself.) While in many of these letters, Ross comes across as that curmudgeon one might expect, there is a touch of tender concern in others that shows you that some of the gruffness was merely a pose--as is his stance as the long-suffering, embattled editor who says he would rather be doing anything else, but who clearly shows he is having the time of his life.

The book may be a bit abstruse in places for those who do not know the history of the "New Yorker" during the Ross editorship, but there seems to be enough comedy throughout to maintain even a casual reader's interest. Anyone who has enjoyed "Genius in Disguise" will surely love this book. I guess the greatest complement I can offer is now that I've read Kunkel's two Ross portrayals, I can't wait for his next book.

This is an amazing book. I have read several biographies about T. E. Lawrence that deal mostly with his campaign in the Middle East and his life in the ranks. What a surprise to meet Lawrence , the sensitive man of letters, in this well documented book which, by the way, is not a biography. Lawrence's criticism of famous and less known writers and poets never leave you indifferent.I highly recommend it to readers who are interested in literature and who, like me, believe that T.E. Lawrence was a far more profound man than "Lawrence of Arabia".

Okay, so I haven't actually read the book, but there haven't yet been any reviews and so it might be useful to provide something which fills the space. I do know, however, that Mr. Orlans is my uncle, and so I have at least some idea of the care, work, and time that went into writing this book. It's probably well-done and worth reading.

Emergency Medicine Self Assessment and Review is a must to bring out the important clinical teaching points on the very factual and sometimes verbose chapters of the book it reviews: Rosen's Emergency Medicine Textbook. The explainations that are provided explain not only why the correct answer is correct, but also why the wrong answers are incorrect. The book enables emergency medicine attending physicians, residents and interested medical students a feedback mechanism to insure the most important points are understood, and not just memorized.

This book presents an outstanding understanding of the personality types including psychosocial development. It correlates Jungian personality types (and Meyers-Briggs Type Indicators) to a spiritual and biblical context to help us in our journey toward wholeness. This is an excellent resource for personal growth as well as retreat material. I am a psychotherapist and a spiritual director. I have used it for many years with my directees to help them better understand themselves in relationship to God, scripture, and their spiritual growth.

Everyone has heard of this trial. However, until I heard this rendition of the trial and play I wasn't as interested. This play sheds new light on it and makes it so much more interesting and actually brought it to life for me.

Thomas Williams has written a brilliant book that everyone should read--The Hair of Harold Roux. It is probably the finest of all Williams' novels. Written as a novel-within-a-novel, both stores involve the reader. It's one of my favorite books.

This edition of the Bible, Possibility Thinkers Bible, the New King James Version, was made available through the Sunday TV program by Robert Schuller who said that it contained the most beautiful English translation of the Bible available. Dr. Schuller was correct, in my view. This translation is quite beautiful and very easy to read. Previously I had read another translation in English which was frankly quite poorly and unevenly done. This New King James Version, Possibility Thinkers Bible, brought the Bible to life for me in everyday, beautiful English. My thanks go to the translators of the New King James Version. You did a wonderful job for the Lord God/Jesus Christ.

First of all, this book is NOT by Edwin M. Stanton, who died in 1869. The authors are Benjamin P. Thomas, the distinguished historian who was also the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Biography, which I read with great appreciation on 22 Jan 1993 and which was published in 1952 and which is generally considered the best one-volume biography of Lincoln at least until David Donald's superlative biography of Lincoln (read by me Feb 4, 1996) came along in 1995 and Harold M. Hyman, the co-author of Equal Justice Under Law: Constitutional Development 1835-1875 (read by me with much approval on 10 July 1982). I found Stanton a good book, tho some of the parts, where the Civil War and the problems with finding a general are reviewed, did not happen to excite me. But there can be little doubt that Stanton did yeoman service during the War and that he played a big role in the North's successful effort. The dramatic events during the dispute between Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans in 1866-1868 are detailed well in this book, though very laudatory to Stanton. While I agree with much of the viewpoint of the Radical Republicans I have never felt that the impeachment effort should have succeeded, and I thought the biography of Andrew Johnson by Hans L. Trefousse (which I greatly enjoyed when I read it 31 July 1999)reinforced that feeling for me--and Trefousse is certainly no apologist for the forces against the Radical Republicans. In fact, the course Stanton pursued during the impeachment fight, when he refused to obey the orders of the president of the United States, his commander-in-chief, grate on one accustomed to the current view of presidential power. The book is well-footnoted, with the footnotes where they belong (at the bottom of each page, so one can see whether they need to be read or whether they are merely source notes), but there is, sadly, no bibliography. But as far as I know this is the best biography of Stanton, a man of great interest to any student of the 1860s.

Do I really need to say how important Eliot is? Simply put, this is the dividing line. Poetry has never been the same since. Beyond that, the Norton Critical edition does an excellent job assisting us by providing the reader with many of the sources this excellent poem was based on, as well as many responses to this poem in one neat and nifty book! Plus the poem is thrown in just for kicks. Buy the book! Love the book!

Literature scholars universally recognize Eliot's "Waste Land" as one of the most influential poems of the 20th century. The poem draws on a wealth of images, everything from classics of Western literature to Tarot cards, from anthropology to Eastern sacred texts. The title refers to the barren land of the Fisher King in Arthurian legend; both the king and the land eventually find redemption through the Holy Grail. Through a masterful use of language and symbols, Eliot brilliantly portrays the problem of meaning in the modern world --- and the way to deeper meaning!

Unfortunately, many of Eliot's references are arcane, and not easy for the lay reader to pursue. For example, few modern readers happen to have a copy of Webster's play "White Devil" or excerpts from Shackleton's account of the Antarctic expedition readily available on their shelves. Hence, the virtue of this particular edition: in addition to Eliot's original poem and original notes, this book includes the relevant passages from every single work Eliot quotes in the "Wasteland", all translated into English. For the first time I have seen in print, this book allows the reader to understand this magnificent poem in light of the full scope of its allusions. A triumphant achievement!

Simply put, THE WASTE LAND is one of the strangest, most complicated, and interesting poems ever written. Try reading an unannotated version of the poem and you will see why even TS Eliot scholars need a little help with some of the images and literary references Eliot uses. This NORTON CRITICAL EDITION of THE WASTE LAND is an essential book for any Eliot fan, new or old. It provides you with practically every single piece of literature, history, and music that inspired Eliot to write his manifesto of the Lost Generation. If you have any questions concerning THE WASTE LAND, this is the book you need...this is the book you want. Buy it and realize how well-read you are not.

This could easily be rated as five stars, were it not for some minor proofreading problems which do not detract significantly from its readability. It is a self-published book, very well written and extensively researched. The author has assembled a great many facts about the Vietnam War, including the designations of various military groups involved, and has obviously studied several conspiracy theories closely. In other words, the story has a plausible ring--an essential of all good fiction.

Whether the author, Harold Thomas Beck, has any actual personal military experience is open to question, but his book is highly readable.

The story revolves around the life of one Charley Reed and his various loves who all seemed to think he was the greatest lover since Don Juan. But Charley, a Green Beret, or "snake-eater" as they were known by most Vietnam veterans, was killed in an auto accident--or was he?

There is a great deal of sex in the book, with well-written and highly explicit accounts of the details of the act. In fact, most of the characters seem to be veritable sex machines, copulating at the drop of a hat--and the hat seems to drop almost continuously; so much so that the depiction of the act becomes tedious. It was the only aspect of the book that seemed totally implausible to me.

The action moves along well, and the author manages to work in details of the the explosion of TWA flight 800, blaming terrorists; the twin towers holocaust of September 11th, 2001; and allusions to the assassination of John Kennedy, making Lyndon Johnson an accomplice,whom he also accuses of manufacturing the Gulf of Tonkin incident for which there is some good evidence, much as Lincoln is reputed to have pushed North Carolina into firing on Fort Sumpter and FDR pushed the Japanese into attacking us--in each case to prepare the country emotionally for war.

The book is extremely unflattering to the Johnson administration, to say the least, in spite of the fact that the author seems also to hold conservatives in low esteem.

This is a good novel. One has to keep in mind constantly that, as the author says, "It should not be construed as anything but fiction." Too often, perhaps, readers of really good fiction come away with the idea that an author's daydream is based on fact. And sometimes that is no doubt true. I think, though, that is not the case here.

Joseph Pierre, USN(Ret)
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

This book is fantastic---and I'm not even completely done yet! Actually I just started 2 days ago and I'm only on pg150 but it really makes you feel like Mr. Beck is sitting next to you telling the story and you can't tear yourself away. I've even cried once! Authors rarely are able to bring me into their novels so deep that I begin to feel emotional equivalecies to the characters and I can't wait to see what's on the next page. This book is very, VERY intriquing. It keeps you interested and it keeps you guessing. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book.

At first I thought this was non fiction. Harold Beck has an uncanny way of placing the reader in the center of the story and has them watching the events take place. Bravo! It has been a long time since I read a CIA mystery thriller as good as this one. I am reminded of Tom Clancey when he first started writing. Without a doubt this is the book of the season if not the year. Mr. Beck and his publisher are very brave to venture out with this work so close to September 11th but the job is done well and complete. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a great read.