Prose Books

I would like to focus in this review on the final pages of this outstanding and moving biography. In it Pawel tells the story of two of the great loves of Kafka's life, Milena Jesenka and Dora Dymant. In these stories we see how Kafka who somehow more deeply than any other writer conveys anxiety in loneliness, was very much loved and respected in his own lifetime. The heroic Milena Jesenka whose courage in helping people throughout her terrible time in Ravensbruck Concentration camp where she died on May 17, 1944 is related by her friend Margeret -Buber- Neumman's outstanding memoir of their time there.She understood and was devoted to the genius Kafka. Dora Dymant was with Kafka through the painful last months of his life. Her sacrifice, devotion and love of him knew no limit.They dreamed together of traveling to 'Palestina' and beginning a new life together. She loved him with a total and true love, and remained devoted to his memory throughout her life. We owe the fact that Kafka's works were not destroyed, and in fact became known to the world through the devoted action of his best friend, writer and biographer, Max Brod.
This book is written with deep human feeling and sensibility.
I want to close this review with Milena Jesenka's obituary for Kafka which appears towards the end of the book.
" Dr.Franz Kafka , .. writer who lived in Prague, died the day before yesterday in the Kierling Sanitorium at Klosterneuberg near Viena. Few knew him, for he was a loner, a recluse wise in the ways of the world, and frightened by it. For years he had been suffering from a lung disease, which he cherished and fostered even while accepting treatment.. It endowed him with a delicacy offeeling that bordered on the miraculous, and with a spiritual purity uncompromisingto the point of horror... He wrote the most significant works of modern German literature' their stark truth makes them seem naturalistic even where they speak in symbols. They reflect the irony and prophetic vision of a man condemned to see the world with such blinding clarity that he found it unbearable and went to his death."
I believe with the years many readers would substitute for the phrase 'most significant works in modern German literature' the phrase 'most significant works in world literature'.

I really enjoyed this bio. Unfortunately my copy was very used and progressively fell apart as I neared the end. Would like to buy a decent (whole) copy for keeps.

Few twentieth century authors have had as widespread an impact on modern literature as Franz Kafka. Even fewer biographers have managed to serve their subject so well as Ernst Pawel does the eternally enigmatic Kafka in THE NIGHTMARE OF REASON: A LIFE OF FRANZ KAFKA.

If ever the term "tortured genius" was applicable to one of the giants of literary history, it was without question to the Prague-born Jewish author Franz Kafka. Born July 3, 1883, to this day Kafka is celebrated worldwide for the seemingly bizarre, amorphous, surrealistic, and yet pin-point precise writing that characterizes such classics as his novels The Trial and The Castle, and his story Metamorphosis. What most readers don't realize, and what Ernst Pawel makes so stunningly clear in The Nightmare of Reason, is that Kafka's phenomenal work represents a true-to-life rendering of the emotional trauma, religious persecution, political oppression, and physical anguish he suffered throughout his life.

In the course of weaving together the historical and spiritual threads that bound the different elements of Kafka's existence, Pawel sheds much-needed light on one of the most famous father-son relationships in literary culture. In his wisdom, Pawel illustrates how both Franz and his father Hermann Kafka were largely products of their political and social times--an era that saw the unapologetic murderous oppression of Jews in Europe, ongoing debates over Zionism, and eruptions of war around the globe. How father and son adapted as individuals to these issues created between them walls too thick and tall to work their way around. Moreover, his mother Julie's need to make herself more available to her husband as a business partner and comrade than to her only son and her daughters did little to heal the future author's sense of abandonment in a terrifyingly tumultuous world.

If Kafka had had only his family's collective angst and Prague's political instability to cope with, he would have been immersed in the same kind of life conditions that many writers revel in to create their best work. His situation, however, was a far more complex one. Despite a healthy appreciation for sexual enjoyments, he nevertheless distrusted the deeper levels of binding emotional intimacy. In addition, he was prone to contracting illnesses rarely heard of outside Biblical times and accentuated the pain of these with an acute hypochondria.

The grace with which Kafka navigated chronic illnesses, held down a demanding job as an insurance claims administrator, pursued serious literary ambitions, and compassionately addressed the needs of others, made him appear more than human in the eyes of some. That his biological clock seemed to stop around the age of 20 did little to persuade them differently. Even months before his death at the age of 40, his countenance was more that of a youth curious about whatever surprises life might hold than it was that of a middle-aged man who had weathered his share of brutal storms, not the least of which was maintaining commitment to his literary art.

In his biography of the author, Pawel allows readers to feel the full weight of pain in Kafka's life so we come to understand what it means for a dedicated writer of his caliber to struggle past the agony of accumulated wounds and transform unrelenting affliction--if not into ecstasy capable of saving the life of the writer, then at least into art capable of inspiring humanity to address the danger of its absurd and deadly vanities. Kafka once put it this way: "Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little of his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins."

As much as he was beset by demons or sorrow throughout his years on the planet, Kafka was also blessed by the company of such angels as his courageous younger sister Ottla, his legendary off-and-on-again fiancé Felice Bauer, the famed political journalist Milena Jesenska, and the passionately devoted Dora Diamant. Just as he empowered each with his knowledge and influence, so did each in turn serve as sources of strength and refuge in his many hours of profound need. In his account of their place in Kafka's life, there's never a need for Pawel to exaggerate because the humbling facts speak so persuasively for themselves.

Had it not been for his friend Max Brod, few people outside European literary circles would likely have ever heard of Kafka. It was Brod who first recognized Kafka's genius, Brod who secured publication outlets for that genius, and he who later wrote the first biography on his friend, all while producing dozens of volumes of original writings himself. His most significant role in the Kafka story as the world knows it today is that of the man who defied his friend's instructions to destroy his unpublished works after his death, which occurred at noon on June 3, 1924. Brod did the exact opposite, editing and publishing as much as he could, in the process providing the world with two of its most enduring classics. If the act may be described as a betrayal of trust, it may also be interpreted as a towering testimony to a rare kind of friendship.

As amazing as The Nightmare of Reason is for its full-dimensional treatment of Kafka, it is equally so for Pawel's examination of the roots of modern anti-Semitism. The insights gleaned from his account of the irrational fears and exaggerated accusations that eventually gave rise to the Holocaust are not without their use in 2007. Consequently, reading the book is not only an excellent way to explore the creative depths and historical substance that produced Kafka's art. It is also a powerful way to reexamine those tendencies which lead humanity to blindly destroy that which it does not easily understand, and to reclaim the ability to transform fear into knowledge, then knowledge into the power to heal, and healing into a greater capacity for love.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of The Harlem Renaissance Way Down South
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)

Mr. Pawel's book is an articulate account of Kafka's tortured life. Though the details are interesting, it is the manner in which these details are presented by Pawel that makes this book such a pleasure to read. Pawel's style is commendable and his insight is impressive. A worthy tribute to a giant of modern literature.

Photographs of Franz Kafka at age thirty and age forty appear in the center of the book. Through the years, nothing has been subtracted from the world's consciousness of his genius. He was born in a Prague still solidly embedded in the middle ages. His father, Hermann Kafka, had clawed his way out of poverty. In 1848 full citizenship rights had been granted the roughly four hundred thousand Jews within the Hapsburg Empire. Hermann did not have to exaggerate the hardships of his youth.

The world of Freud was the world of Kafka. Kafka, named for the emperor, felt that his childhood had crippled him. Family life focused on his father's drygoods store. Hermann had a booming parade-ground voice. Kafka denounced school as the conspiracy of the grown-ups. He had life-long difficulty over face-to-face meetings with authority figures. Over ninety per cent of the Jewish children in Bohemia received their education in German. For eight years Franz attended the German National Humanistic Gymnasium. Among other things, pupils were trained to work in a bureaucracy. They did many pointless tasks.


Kafka noted that to him writing was a form of prayer. In his age literature had taken the place of faith, ritual, and tradition. The productivity of writers in Austro-Hungary was staggering. The western Jews faced a dilemma. The sons, who seemed to be out of the business game, wrote. At the university Franz moved from philosophy to chemistry to the study of law. In 1902 he met Max Brod at a student society called the Hall. Brod recognized Kafka's genius. He came to believe Kafka would become the most important writer of his time. Brod had zest for life. The young Kafka was a striking combination of innate nobility and tact. He was both a middle class Jewish law student, at least until his graduation in 1906, and an underground hermit.

Franz Kafka once compared insurance to the religion of primitive man. The Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute was part of the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy. Kafka's superiors claimed he had exceptional faculty for conceptualization. He was granted Civil Service tenure in 1910. Franz became a vegetarian, he practiced body-building, and sought to break his creative paralysis. He began in 1910 to keep detailed notebooks. The diaries inspired him to develop working methods.

In the fall of 1910 Kafka went to Paris with Otto and Max Brod. He was ill, but returned the following year and had better luck. In 1911 he attended a lecture of Karl Kraus and in the same year he met Kurt Tucholsky. Kafka became fascinated with the Yiddish theater. Subsequesntly he became interested in Jewish history and studied Hebrew. He also followed the affairs of the Zionists and the agricultural settlers in Palestine. In 1912 he gave a speech on the Yiddish language. The speech has been preserved by the notes taken by Elsa Taussig, Max Brod's wife.

He read voraciously. Writing justified his life and his not living his life. Kafka's first novel was AMERIKA. Kurt Wolff became his publisher. In 1912 as he was preparing his manuscript he met Felice Bauer through Max Brod. The courtship lasted five years. Felice preserved the leters. His unfinished novel, THE TRIAL, arose from his involvement with Felice Bauer. Later he had tuberculosis and he determined that the illness was a reason for him to terminate the relationship.

By 1921 Kafka could not longer meet the physical demands of his job. Visits by old friends tired him and depressed him. He corresponded with another friend, Milena, and wrote THE CASTLE his most elaborately autobiographical work. At some point in 1922 he pleaded with Milena not to write him again. His letters to her have also been preserved. In the end, Kafka, who feared death, surrendered to Dora Dymant. He stayed in a sanitorium near Vienna. Dora joined him there. He died in 1924 of tuberculosis of the larynx, (hungry and thirsty).

It tells alittle bit about the history of Nirvana but its mostly about the making of Nevermind and about the songs. Its pretty good.

This book gives an excellent account of what led to the great CD we now know as Nevermind. It briefly describes Nirvana's rise to stardom and gives a glimpse into the personalities of the members, but is at its best in describing how the actual production of the album went. Using numerous sources, the author lets us listen to Nevermind in a completely different way. The only downside is that it is a relatively short work, and I left wanting more

This is an excellent book on Nirvana, and it is too sad that it is out-of-print. It contains important interviews and write-ups from several pop culture mags of that era on the band--on performances--on their overall views...

Does this signal that Kurt was right: Grunge is dead?

Well, perhaps dead but not yet interred into the earth.

Yeah, yeah, it's really lame to buy a book about them and all, but this isn't just another stupid ripoff fan book- this is really good stuff. It's funny. It's sad. It gives Courtney a chance to look less evil- I changed my mind about her because of this book. And it's not just about Kurt like most Nirvana books are- there's a good amount of stuff on Krist and the various drummers as well. Serious Nirvana fans really need to read this.

There are a lot of crappy books out there about Nirvana, but this isn't one of them. Contains some of the most revelent articles and nirvana related material. Very interesting and a must have if you are a Nirana nut like me. :)

This book is a very good book for a third or fourth grader. It tells about all of the family and where they are and then it brings them together with various means. this is a great book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Watch out below!" Thats the sound of the little boy named Junor Blossom about to jump off the top of the barn. This little boy has a lot of problems with his family, he has a big sister named Maggie. Her problem in the family is she has to take care of the family and run things but, she can't go shopping.(her favorite thing to do is shopping) Junior also has a big brother named Vern, a grandpa named Pap, and a dog named Mud. They have a mother too but, she's out on a rodeo circuit. His granpa and his big brother are in jail for disturbing the peace and their dog Mud has ran away. See...this family has a lot of problems. There's just one question to ask you? Do you think that the Blossoms will solve their problems? Now if you read this book I don't know if you wil like it or not but, to tell you I sure did. This book was put on my favorite book list after I got done reading it. The book is realistic fiction so if you don't like realistic books I wouldn't read this book. The author is Besty Byars. She has wrote a lot of books most of them are mystery and romance but, hey she is a really good writer. So are you going to read this book?

When Pap Blossom goes into town that's when it all started. Breaking into jail, jumping off the roof, missing mom and lost dog are some of the interesting things that happen to the Blossom family. If I could I would give it a hundred stars. I think this book is a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade book. Now you know what it is about so go get the book NOW!!

Go into the world of funny things with Betsy Byars and The NotJust- Anybody Family. It's filled with trouble, mischief, and fun! The trouble begins when Pap goes into town. Somebody falls of the roof, someone goes to jail, someone breaks into jail, and people go to trial. Also, there is a runaway dog. All these funny and exciting things plus a teaspoon of sadness fit into this book. I hope I got your attention! P.S READ THIS BOOK!!!

The Not-Just-Anybody Family is a book my whole classroom enjoyed. It has action, humor, a missing dog, an out-of-town mom, and a grandpa in jail. The children in the book are very real and my students could relate to their feelings and difficulties. The settings change from chapter to chapter and Betsy Byars writes just enough about each situation to keep you wanting more. This book helped my students learn the meaning of "suspense" and almost all of them gave the book a rating of nine or ten on a one to ten scale. I plan on ordering the audio version for some of my students next year.

I had never read any of these 11 previously published pieces before, so I really felt like I hit the motherlode when I chanced upon this collection in the local library. Scholarly, yet entertaining and compulsively readable; not a combination one often encounters. From Anais Nin thru Margaret Mitchell, Ayn Rand, Hannah Arendt and 8 more women, this book sketches an unforgettable miniature of each and even dishes the dirt with elan.

Pierpont certainly has a way with words; something that is obvious to anyone who has read any of the articles. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in writing or feminism. Side Note: The most recent New Yorker has another article by Pierpont on Fitzgerald. Is this the start of yet another amazing book?

I read all these pieces when they first appeared, and couldn't wait to read them all again. All are revised, and several are expanded significantly. Pierpont has a way of combining "life," "works" and "social context" so that they all speak effortlessly of one another. If all critics had her perceptiveness, sympathy and wit, arguments would never have sprung up about what is and isn't relevant to the appreciation of a writer; she makes it all completely natural, while at the same time telling you things you never thought of for yourself.

Thank God for collections----I missed some of these pieces upon their first appearence in The New Yorker, and they're all fascinating and well written. Pierpont combines the skills of essayist, biographer/profiler, and critic with assurance and wit. It's hard to praise this book too highly. Here's hoping she comes out with another collection in this vein before too long.

Exhaustively researched and knowledgeably sifted, Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World is an incisively engaging work that exhilarates the mind while also extending beyound the mere bland categorization of 'biography' and 'women's studies,' for it stretches quite easily into other academic dimensions: sociology, psychology, history and economics; it is a work that is more than what it is promoted to be. Pierpont's succinct yet smooth academic prose is honed and streamlined; excess language and descriptive clutter is cast aside, and only the germane pith, the be-all and end-all, is critically dissected. Writing is a soul-searching craft-that more often than not-offers an intellectual and spiritual cartharsis. It is a powerful talent (one of many) by which many positive changes can be enacted, for when asked why they do what they do, writers, broadly speaking, would never hesitate to say, "The pen is mightier than the sword." The twelve writers, authors in Passionate Minds would have used the above-in varying degrees-as a life philosophy. From Hannah Arendt and Ayn Rand to Olive Schreiner and Marina Tsvetaeva, the lives profiled were not of simple women who 'slothfully' mused over global issues and then did nothing about them. The concerns, though mostly relegated to a specific gender, nonetheless, addressed all of humanity. Economic equality and intellectual stimulation, rather than artistic expression, would be at the top of the pyramid in this case. The broader essence of the book is how a person or persons broaches a subject that is of pressing concern to him or herself. What tools could and can be used to rectify specific areas that have long ago been ignored or deemed too weighty in intensity to even approach? In Ayn Rand's case, could it be done through collectivism or individualism? For Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy especially, collectivism would tower, the two probably being the modernized propellant of the literati activist, now being emulated. But the one thing that linked all these women was the printed word, printed utterances that came in the form of essays, novels, plays, journalism, poetry. These were the weapons of transformation (see Mae West, Doris Lessing, Anais Nin), racial exploration (see Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Mitchell) and onward. What is remarkable about these lives is that they either rose from abject poverty and anguish or dived headlong into it in order to write, to do something that had a greater and profound good that was not yet visible to the masses: "I write for thee/I suffer privately/ And glory comes when I am gone..." These writers had battle scars from sacrifice. And the improvement is so little.

While there are other good translations of selections from the Canzoniere, Petrarcch's masterpiece needs to be read as a whole from start to finish in order to be fully appreciated. Petrarch planned and rewrote these poems in order to fit into an overall plan.
Usually I skip introductions to works that I read but I read the first paragraph of the extensive introduction and was quickly drawn in. This introduction was actualy a helpful prologue to the poetry which descibed Petrach's styles and intentions.
A blurb on the book cover says that Musa's treanslations read so well that you are unaware that they are translations. I certainly agree. I do not read Italian but this edition does conain the originals on the adjacent side.
I was surprised at the modernity and musicality of the poems. Petrarch was not just inflouential in his versification but also in his language. Much of his humanistic language has become second nature to us but he invented it.
I rank this book as not only some of the graetest poetry but as one ofthe great works of Western llterature.
These "little songs" are highly readble and like a said before form a sort of novelistic story that I would highly recommend to not just poetry readers but all readers.

In addition to one of the finest translations, Musa provides much useful background information. He includes a chronological table that comprises when the poems were written and times when the events occurred in Petrarch's live. The notes and commentary, not footnoted but located separately from the poems in a chapter at the end of the book, are detailed descriptions about the poems and its allegories. Musa tells readers about the name "Laura" and its connection to the laurel. Through the various explanations of Italian lyrics, readers learn how to differentiate between various poetic genres. The book also has the original Italian text as well as the English translation, so that readers can compare them. It is a great way to learn how to read Italian. Another important feature is the works cited because scholars can seek the same readings that Musa used for his book. And also, the index of the first lines is very helpful when one remembers a few beginning words of the poem and wants to know where it is located in the book. This edition is a must for anyone who collects the works of Petrarca.

Musa's translations preserve all the brilliant visionary beauty & humble humanness of Petrarch's voice. & where would western literature be without Petrarch? He was one of the main people to bring Europe out of the Middle Ages.

Petrarch, an Italian poet in the early 1300's, had a major influence on English literature in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a series of sonnets that became known as Canzoniere, Petrarch focused on his idea of love based on the sighting of a woman named Laura in a church. Though she was married, Petrarch confessed his love to her but was rebuked each time. With his love unreturned, he channeled that energy into his poetry and instead of trying to persuade Laura, his poetry idealizes and describes the concepts related to beauty. The poetry of the "lover" to the "beloved" describes Laura with "godly" attributes. The beloved is a woman who has an angelic appearance and a certain grace in her mannerisms. Physically, the beloved has blonde hair, blue eyes and pale white skin with red cheeks. She is radiant in appearance and can strike a man's heart in seconds. In addition, Petrarch's writing mechanics influenced the style in which future poems were written. Petrarch's poetry also followed a distinct meter, usually an octave scale. Petrarch's deliberate style and notion of beauty found in his sonnets set a new standard for writing.

Sidney, Spencer, and even Shakespeare were familiar with, and heavily influenced by, Petrarch's work. Other English poets like Henry Howard and Sir Thoms Wyatt tried to translate Petrarch's poetry. In order to understand this entire time peroid, one should go back to the roots and read the original. Mark Musa's translation includes the original Italian version as well as an excellent English translation. My professors also use this book because the translations stay as close to the original as possible. Though something is always lost in translation, these poems feel as if they are whole, and should be read as one long story. Musa's critical notes at the end of the book provide excellent insight into Petrarch's style, form and meaning. This is a great version of the Canzoniere and I highly recommend it.

This edition of Petrarch's Canzoniere (trans. Mark Musa) is the best English rendering I have seen. Durling's edition, while useful in different ways (I would certainly reccommend both to anyone seriously interested in Petrarch), doesn't provide translations that are nearly as poetic or comfortable as these. Musa's experience from translating Dante's Divine Comedy and Vita Nuova, Boccaccio's Decameron, and even, previously, portions of Petrarch's Canzoniere, definitely shines through here - Musa knows his way around the Italian greats, and it shows in this translation.

This was the first May Sarton book I read. I admit I had never heard of her and am not sure where I picked the book up. I now own a few of her works and will be buying more. This is a wonderful look at the life of a writer, a woman, who buys an older home in an isolated area, and starts a new chapter in her life. She immerses herself in the solitude in order to write, and to bring together different aspects of her life. The title is very appropriate as she talks a lot about gardening and plants AND dreams and hopes. I have passed this on to a friend to enjoy.

This book is about the author's first home purchase in Nelson, N.H. May Sarton does an excellent job telling about her first home purchase by herself, living alone in a small town, the joys and therapies of gardening. If you have never read May Sarton and you are a lover of reading, writing and solitude, you must read this author.

I don't know who reads May Sarton nowadays (hopefully at least students are still imbibing) for hers is a chosen art beholden to stillness and its plenitude, and we know the short shrift given to reflection in an oversized disposable culture. I do know that everything she's written holds magical lessons for every writer - her poems and journals are steeped in subtle lessons of patience, fearlessness and conscience. Plant Dreaming Deep (a title intended both as admonition and hopeful reflection) is a masterpiece. Part memoir, journal, survival guide, it's a kind of holy book for seekers searching the scrub of rocks and weeds. Sarton's intrepid gift has always been to secure for us the infinite contained in the small and unnoticed, to plant within the careful reader a kind of loving understanding to bloom unexpectedly farther on down the road, easing the load even as it deepens the search. Above all else, hers is an enlightening art that cannot lead astray. Quietly artful black and white photographs (of house and garden and friends - most by Lotte Jacobi and Eleanor Blair) are among the treasure found in the 1983 Norton paperback edition I own. Sarton's voice never fails; it's always rich and reasonable and true. It's easy to surmise that she's a overlooked writer, but if you really want what you're looking for, read May Sarton. Once born inside you, she's faithful to the end.

When you need to take a deep breath and destress, pick up this book. Sarton has a rich understanding of the rhythm of nature and lives often in harmony with it...and she will inspire you to do the same.

This is the first May Sarton book I ever read.

In this journal Sarton describes buying and moving into an 18th century broken-down house on thirty-six acres in a small New Hampshire village.

She chronicles for us the many varied emotions and pressures involved with getting the house repaired and renovated to her liking.

She describes moving in and then adapting (both as a writer and as a human being) to the solitude of living there alone.

She describes her relationships with many of the people (some of whom are unusual characters) that she comes to know living in Nelson.

She does very well in communicating all the sensory impressions that she experienced living right in the heart of nature and the outdoors.

I read it a chapter a day so that I could allow it to sink in slowly.

All chapters seemed well-paced (and not too long nor too short) and I didn't get bored anywhere along the way.

As a writer Sarton seems to have a nice gentle natural writing style.

I liked this (my first Sarton book) so much that I intend to read much more of her work.

I recommend this journal to you.

This is the Modern Library edition of the classic Dorothy Parker collection of stories and poems. If you want to introduce someone to Mrs. Parker - maybe with a birthday gift book - get this.

The first half is divided into verse from the collected editions Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, Death and Taxes; the second half is more than 25 short stories. It's a compact little hardcover book, with an old style typeface, and moderately priced. Even the dust jacket is classy.

This book is a compilation of all three of Parker's books of poetry as well as her published book of short stories. As for the price, it can't be beat, especially considering it's in hardcover. Plus, you also don't have to worry about buying 2 or 3 books to make sure you've got all of the poems you wanted.

Dorothy Parker's writing is fantastic anyway, and uses cynical wit to draw the reader into the poem. The reader laughs, but manages to feel empathetic. Her style is unique and doesn't seem outdated, even though most of this was written at least half a century ago. If you've ever wanted to laugh about being broken-hearted, this is the book for you.

Not that I dislike her poems (I only read about a dozen) but I bought this book primarily for the stories. And I still don't regret it. Parker's stories can be separated in 2 or 3 groups; the cleverly sarcastic ones (most of the stories I believe), the third-person narrative ones (much rarer) with a rather grave tone (quite emotionally loaded), and the third group I do not remember because I read this book a while ago. Bear with me...

I have to say that nearly all of these stories made me want to purchase a gun and start to kill people randomly. Why? Because Parker has a way to present us the unnice sides of humans in such a way that you feel it like a personal attack (not an attack from the author to you, but one from the characters to another character, and that will make you want to break something). I guess that means Dorothy is good at making the reader emotionally involved; and she is. However sarcastic and cynical she gets, you always know how to take it, you always know what it means. It's a bit like someone telling you something terribly sad and adding a smile to it; you know it does not mean they are happy at all, but you understand it in a deeper way. Sorry if this all sounds far-fetched and fancy; I do suck at reviews. (This being said, that's a purely personal standard, on an amazon standard, I think I'm doing fairly well.)

Lastly, a word about Modern Library. Their books are definitely classy. I always prefer a hardcover to a paperback, so this edition made my day. The paper quality is a quite a fine one as well and the font is classy too (it has some special "e" in it, with a diagonal bar, but I don't think you'd notice that unless you were told).

Great book. Ideal for any Dorothy Parker fan

Here you have it, all of the wit and charm of Dorothy Parker in one neat compact volume. The poems, many of which I had read before, are brilliant and stunning, having the punch of an O. Henry story in one or two little pages. The short stories, of which I had read exactly none before I picked up this book, are, incredibly, just as good as her verses. Full of the pathos and drama of a wide variety of domestic experience, these prose gems are brimming with smart and realistic dialogue seldom found in any medium. Some of the best tales are simply inner monologues of a woman doing ordinary things like waiting for the man she adores to call her on the phone or dancing with a clog footed bore who keeps kicking her in the shins. These pieces are so well done and so dead on that they would make great audition pieces for budding actresses to impress a casting agent with. Much has been made of Dorothy Parker's unhappiness and self destructive behavior, but despite, or possibly because of, her abject misery, the lady could put pen to paper. Her work, much more than her biography, is what should stand the test of time. If you like this book and simply have to have more, you should also pick up "Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker" compiled by Stuart Silverstein and collecting, many for the first time, the poems that Dottie wasn't that fond of--they are brilliant as well.

The BEST collection of pulp genre ever. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Is there a Doc Savage in the house? Can I get that Fu Manchu to go? how about some Lovecraft? I guess it all should have warped us, but it didn't, and all that we watch and read today has drawn strength from these wonderfully cheap reads. Totally sweet from design to content. Robinson knows his stuff and it all makes for a CHERISHED collectible book!

This is a fully revised edition of the first pictorial history of the pulp magazines to be published and the authors finally got it right. There is a complete index of magazine titles and the artists who painted their covers, the images have been rescanned to eliminate any "moire" patterns that may have degraded the paintings, and the most unusual cover ever published has now been included (a painting by John Held Jr., famous for his "sheiks and shebas" of the Jazz Age). The cover has been redesigned and features the image of a pirate far more fearsome than Johnny Depp. This is the book that started it all and the price is now more than right. --Frank M. Robinson (I'm one of the authors).

I puchased this book for 50% off, and after reading it, I can say that even at full price, it would have been worth it. Page after page of bright clear reproductions of pulp covers, many almost full-page, with any extra space filled with smaller images. The book is divided into chapters based on subject matter: Westerns, Super Heroes, Sci-Fi, Horror, Gangsters, etc. The text is informative, but minimal - it provides just enough background on each chapter's subject and then lets the art speak for itself. Each cover is accompanied with information on the issue and artist, plus some informative personal commentary from the author. Plenty of top-notch artists are included, such as Wyeth, Baumhofer, etc. Don't buy this for an in-depth analysis of pulp magazines; the star here is definitely the art, and it delivers in spades.

Hard-boiled Detectives, mysterious heroes, shadowy villains, evil oriental masterminds, and dames in distress...they are the stuff of the pulp magazines and the subject of this wonderful book by Frank Robinson which traces the history of pulp magazines and provides covers to hundreds of these great pulp magazines, so many lost in the antiquity of time...not to mention paper drives of the 1940's war years.

Robinson begins by tracing the roots of the pulps back to the dime novels of the late 1800's. Argosy would premiere as the first true pulp back in 1896 and before long dozens of competitors would emerge such as Popular Magazine, All-Story Weekly, New Story and so many more. Street & Smith, long a major publisher of dime novels would convert their Nick Carter series into Detective Story Magazine in 1915. The pulps were born!

Early on, adventure pulps were the most popular as they transported readers to strange and exotic lands in a time when few would ever leave their own state. It's where we first read the exploits of Tarzan, and heard the names of writers such as Burroughs, Mundy and Rohmer. Adventure magazine was among the most popular of those early days and they even had their own organization you could join called "The Legion" which would one day evolve into the American Legion. Adventure printed more than just fiction, they had many regular columns including "Wanted: Men & Adventurers" where real life mercenaries could advertise their skills for hire.

In the 1930's, detective pulps became the most popular as there were literally dozens of detective pulps being published. Among the most prominent pulps of the day was Black Mask Magazine, started by prominent newspaperman and political commentator H.L. Mencken. But he considered the pulps so low-brow that he didn't want his name associated with them. Still, Blackmask was a breeding ground for some for some of the great mystery and detective writers ever to pen a story including Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, Lester Dent, and Raymond Chandler.

Robinson's narrative moves from one pulp genre to the next, with a short, but concise history of each. He examines the Western pulps and the interesting history of the man known as Max Brand. Brand was the most prolific pulp writer ever, appearing in 622 issues of Western Story magazine from 1920 - 1935. From there it's on to the hero pulps and the birth of the most famous pulp characters of all including "The Shadow", "Doc Savage", and "The Spider". The Shadow's covers were always among the most evocative and terrifying, especially those by the great George Rozen.

But the genre that gave us the most outrageous and grisly covers of the pulp era belongs to the "shudder pulps". Bondage, torture, sadism, nudity...nothing was held back in covers for such pulps as "Terror Tales" and "Horror Stories". These pulps are some of the most sought after today by collectors.

Romance, spicy adventures, sports, war...all of these get their just do in Pulp Culture but it's the sci-fi and fantasy section that will be a major appeal for many fans. It was here where some of the most famous and long-running pulps made their mark. Hugo Gernsback would usher in the age of Sci-fi pulps in 1926 with Amazing Stories. Soon there were dozens of competitors including Wonder Stories, Astounding Stories, and many more. And then there is perhaps the most famous, most collectible of all pulps, Weird Tales. Weird Tales would unleash the enormous talents of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, and countless others with stories that would endure, and continue to be reprinted, decades after their original publication. There are dozens of covers provided featuring the works of artists like Margaret Brundage and Virgil Finlay.

Robinson closes his book by providing an appendix to a handful of pulp dealers and notes on pulp values. This book would be worth the $40 price tag alone JUST for the hundreds of stunning covers re-printed, but Robinson's concise history of pulps just adds to the luster of the book. Simply a magnificent book for any fan or collector of pulp magazines.

Reviewed By Tim Janson

This book is a marvelous journey to a time that will not come back.Guided by two wonderful connoisseurs: writer ,pulp magazines scholar and collector Frank M. Robinson and Lawrence Davidson,"PULP CULTURE" was a beautiful gift that I bought(via Amazon.com ,from the NIGHT OWL CAFE Bookshop in North Hampton,NH) for myself.Reviewing this work for January magazine,David Middleton said:"For me it's mostly about covers.Those lurid,sensational covers." Well,for me it's about everything.I love the covers,of course(see the HANNES BOK painting for the November 1941 cover of WEIRD TALES),but I admire, too,the stories and writers.The adventure tales written by H.BEDFORD JONES and TALBOT MUNDY;the mystery and detective stories created by legends like DASHIELL HAMMETT and RAYMOND CHANDLER;the western yarns concocted by pulp giants like MAX BRAND and FRANK GRUBER.And the Magazines!It's titles!It's alluring titles:THE ARGOSY,THE ALL-STORY,BLACK MASK,DIME DETECTIVE MAGAZINE,ADVENTURE,THE BLUE BOOK,THE POPULAR MAGAZINE,WESTERN STORY,THE SHADOW MAGAZINE,G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES,TERROR TALES,HORROR STORIES,STRANGE STORIES,AMAZING STORIES,ASTOUNDING STORIES,FANTASTIC ADVENTURES,FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES,THRILLING WONDER STORIES,PLANET STORIES and so on...I have a good envy of collectors like Frank M. Robinson who owns hundreds and hundreds of these shiny magazines with their garish covers,a happy guardian of these rare and precious popular art objects.
The books published by Collectors Press are already much sought after for it's exquisite design and intrinsic quality."PULP CULTURE" is one of them.

I knew Steve before his Odyssey to New Mexico during his student days in Boston. For a time, I boarded an eagle of his in my attic there along with a complicated girl friend (also in the attic) and frozen rats in my refrigerator. Years later, and long out of touch with Steve, I was looking for T.H. White's "The Goshawk" and found instead, in order, Steve's "Rage for Falcons", contact with Steve, and Querencia. This beautiful story of two Easterners going to New Mexico and integrating themselves into the landscape of people and mesas is a superb book on many levels. It is as funny as a James Herriot book on animals and people and as descriptive of the land travelled as Patrick Leigh Fermor's "A Time of Gifts". Woven in between the paragraphs on the changing daily life is the two people themselves. Without any sentiment or soppiness, without ever having to say anything explicit, you are drawn into a human story of depth and beauty. The bond between them is drawn out in each day's events and the shared environment in which they live. If you have ever unexpectedly found someone and loved, you must read Querencia. Then read everything else Steve has written (the book on shotguns "Good Guns" is filled with wonderful human descriptions for the non-hunter). Oh, and the eagle still lives, decades later, in the Berkshires.

Querencia is a uniquely personal and cathartic experience of a complex and passionate man's odyssey - a relationship between man, woman, dogs, eagles and nature - an elevating, and sometimes excruciatingly painfull account of the human condition.

The consolation of man's enduring relationship with nature is exquisitely described here. Bodio deserves recognition as New Mexico's champion author, as his friend, Annie Proux has become for Wyoming. You will read this book over and over, and find new insights each time.

In an era where illiterates like Shaquile O'Neal and Tim Allen hit the top ten list with their inane blather, it was a gift from the Gods to stumble upon this gem. When I put Querencia (kur-en-see-uh) down after having read it in one sitting, I asked myself, 'How in the hell is it that I have never heard of this Bodio character before?' He is a MASTERFUL author, a naturalist on par with ANY giant your memory or imagination may conjur, and as genuinely sensitive a man as there ever was. Only after MUCH research did I learn that East coast publishers hate him (his other works explain why: he's smarter than most all publishing execs and editors COMBINED, which is intimidating if you are a micro-apendaged ivy leaguer with a hi-lighter), and that's why he is not a, 'sold' author. Too bad. If Oprah read this, she'd cry herself into a migraine and then make Bodio a NY Times #1 seller: it's that good. IF YOU READ IT BASED UPON THIS RECOMMENDATION AND DO NOT THINK MY ASSESSMENT IS ACCURATE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AND SET ME STRAIGHT! I am confident that I will not be hearing from you.

In an era where illiterates like Shaquile O'Neal and Tim Allen hit the top ten list with their inane blather, it was a gift from the Gods to stumble upon this gem. When I put Querencia (kur-en-see-uh) down after having read it in one sitting, I asked myself, 'How in the hell is it that I have never heard of this Bodio character before?' He is a MASTERFUL author, a naturalist on par with ANY giant your memory or imagination may conjur, and as genuinely sensitive a man as there ever was. Only after MUCH research did I learn that East coast publishers hate him (his other works explain why: he's smarter than most all publishing execs and editors COMBINED, which is intimidating if you are a micro-apendaged ivy leaguer with a hi-lighter), and that's why he is not a, 'sold' author. Too bad. If Oprah read this, she'd cry herself into a migraine and then make Bodio a NY Times #1 seller: it's that good. IF YOU READ IT BASED UPON THIS RECOMMENDATION AND DO NOT THINK MY ASSESSMENT IS ACCURATE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AND SET ME STRAIGHT! I am confident that I will not be hearing from you.

As a New Mexican who has probably walked over Bodio's boot tracks in the central mountains of New Mexico, I was completely captivated by his discriptions of this country that is so full of paradoxes and contrasts. No other author has been able to describe so well this unusual place and the affects it has on it's inhabitants: winged, four legged and two legged.

What wonderful, powerful messages are given in each captivating vignette! Buy it, find a comfortable corner, read it, reflect, and enjoy each poignant passage!

The Easter story as related by the man who follows the Ragman is moving and makes an age old story new. Older elementary school children, middle schoolers and adults listened. We all heard the story.Although it seemd familiar, it held our attention. It was an eyewitness thought provoking news account of a very special Ragman.

Each short story is a new glimpse of God's love for us all. Letter to my Brother Gregory... is the best admonition for a Christian marriage that I have ever read. It clearly reveals the importance of God's role in our marriages and will surprise most who read it. I have enclosed copies of Ragman in wedding presents with a note for the Newlyweds. The title story will make you cry.

Wangerin's Ragman is one of the most inspiring books I have read in a long time. The imagery can pull you into everyday life or to far away scenes. Ragman can stir your heart.

RAGMAN AND OTHER CRIES OF FAITH is a deeply moving collection of works concerning the Christian faith, written by Walt Wangerin, Jr. about some of his experiences as a pastor in the inner city. The title work, "Ragman" is a story that is often used as a skit/readers theatre throughout the country and is basically an updated tale about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The book includes poems, plays, sermons, and many great stories because as Wangerin writes, stories are what make a pastor. The tales are all personal and most are moving. They examine a deep and living faith that sees the work of God everywhere: from a naked, homebound parishoner who smells like urine to the painful death of a young woman to a crazy woman shooting a gun at no one in the middle of the street. This is a great book for any pastor, for anyone who has done urban missions, or for anyone looking for a book that illustrates the very real ways God is working in our world today. Highly recommended.