Stuart Books

This book is a great read for anyone who is interested in bluegrass, early country music, or rural American life in the 1930s. It takes distant musical legends that we now take for granted and gives them faces and voices. It draws an unforgettable bridge between early 20th century itinerant traveling musicians and the teething early world of recording and radio. It reads like "O Brother, Where Art Thou", but with real-life musical pioneers and heroes.

When I got my copy of this book, I started thumbing through it, and the next thing I knew, it was two hours later and I was still glued to it! Until I finished it --and I read some parts twice just because they were so interesting-- the dishes went unwashed, the family went unfed, the house went uncleaned, the instruments went untouched (and that is hardly an exaggeration!). I certainly recommend it!

Reja Jager
President, Northern Illinois Bluegrass Association

I don't know what is more relentlessly compelling: the story of the "Orange Blossom Special" or the story of the man who wrote it.
In the end, of course, the stories end up being intertwined, and the author pulls both up out of the swamps of the Everglades and places them in the realm of legend. History was made by real people, and Ervin Rouse was about as real as you get--if you consider "truly strange" to be "real." But he produced from deep inside himself (real deep, it seems) one of the great tunes of our times. I love the story; I love the writing.

I, too, have had the pleasure of studying with Dr. Horrox; however, I have had the added pleasure of having read this book. Dr. Horrox's choice of essays, her deft handling of the material, and the overall significance of the material is, not unexpectedly, superb.

i must confess that i haven't read this book just YET-- but i have looked for it forever, it seems. the reason i feel that i am justified in reviewing a book i haven't read is that i have had the extraordinary pleasure of getting it, as they say, straight from the horse's mouth. she was one of my professors at summer school in cambridge. her class was entitled life, literature and art 1000-1500 and was probably the most enjoyable class i've ever taken. she would never look at the class (we were warned that she wouldn't) but she would roam back and forth across the front of the room, looking up, looking down, and speaking almost as if to herself of the most fascinating bits of information. while other teachers were dry or commanding or chummy, she was just genuinely informative. she spoke of history as if it were the juiciest gossip that you held your breath to hear more of. if ms. horrox can write half as well as she teaches this book should be one of the greatest reads imaginable for anyone with even the slightest hint of interest on the subject. cheers, ms. horrox.

Another gem in the Citadel film series, this was originally published in 1980 to coincide with Loy's seventy-fifth birthday. As the author states in the opening passage 'this diamond anniversary is a fitting time to recapitulate her extraordinairy life and her unique contribution to films'; you can tell from this statement that Quirk is an avid admirer of Loy's and that this book will not let her down in any way. The opening chapter is a brief biography charting Loy's childhood in Montana, through her star years at MGM, her UNESCO days and her latter years as a character actress and features many wonderful and candid shots of Myrna dated fronm 1905 to 1980. Then starting on page 31 is a comprehensive list of all her film appearances from 1925 onwards featuring cast and crew listing and the author's own essay (not to mention some great black and white stills). All of her classic roles are here from her days as an extra in 'Pretty Ladies' in 1925 to 'Just Tell Me What You Want' in 1980. Of course the last years of Loy's life are not included - she made her last screen appearance in the 1981 TV film 'Summer Solstice' and published her autobiography in 1987 before she finally won a much deserved special oscar in 1991 less than three years before her death in December 1993. This is a fitting tribute to a lady who became a great Hollywood star and humanitarian.

This gem was originally published by Citadel Press in 1980 to coincide with Loy's 75th birhday. As the author states in the opening passage '...this diamond anniversary is a fitting time to recapitulate her extraordinairy life and her unique contribution to films.'. It is obvious from this statement that Quirk is an avid admireer of Loy's and that this book should not let her down in any way. The opening chapter is a brief biography charting Loy's childhood in Montana, her early years in Hollywood, her star years at MGM, her UNESCO days and her latter years as a character actress and features many wonderful and candid shots of Myrna dated from 1905 to 1980. Then starting on page 31 is a comprehensive list of all of her film appearances from 1925 onwards featuring cast and crew listings and the author's own essay (not to mention some great black and white stills). All of her classic roles are here, from her days as a chorus girl extra in 'Pretty Ladies' to Alan King's long suffering secratery in 1979's 'Just Tell Me What You Want'. Of course the last years of Loy's life are not included - she made her last screen appearance in the 1981 TV film 'Summer Solstice' and had her autobiography published in 1987. She was honored by the Kennedy Center in 1988 and finally won a much deserved special oscar early in 1991, less than three years before her death in December 1993. This makes a fitting tribute to a wonderful lady who became a great Hollywood star and humanitarian.

This is a collector book for anyone interested in movies from the silent era through the 40's-50's. This book represents a sampling of Ronald Colman's career, I believe it, also, represents a value of morality, non offensive movies, when movies meant something and were movies with a real story, touching, moving. This book has many numerous black and white photos of Colman's films and pictures of support actors/actresses and leading ladies. A real collector's item.

Citadel film books are famous for their complete filmography with synopsis and reviews and this is one of their best volumes. Ronald Colman was a worthy subject: He was the archetypal english gentleman, and when he died he was one of those rare public figures of which little but good could be said.

Born in 1891 in Richmond from a cultivated background, he initially wanted to become an engineer. But his father died suddenly when he was only 16 and he had to leave school and get a job as clerk with the british steamship company, where he stayed for 5 years and helped support his mother and his sisters. He was an avid reader and also took part in amateur theatricals. He also joined the London Scotts Regionals: they were mobilized in 1914 and he took part with his unit in the first battle of Ypres: Nights in the open field, his clothes lice-ridden, inadequate nutrition and the shelling was endless. At Messines, his leg was hit by a shrapnel. He was decorated for valor and mustered out. This experience made a life-long pacifist out of him and must have influenced his performances in THE DARK ANGEL, RANDOM HARVEST and LOST HORIZON. "I loathe war. I'm inclined to be bitter about the politics of munitions and real estate which are the reasons for war" he once said. An uncle at the foreign office promised to secure him a consulate post, but this time he opted for the stage.

His performance in DAMAGED GOODS became a success because of its scandalous subject: He played a syphilic who came to the doctor for advice. He was discovered by a british film pioneer, sadly, his early films were destroyed during the 1941 London Blitz. In the early twenties, he tried to make a career in New York, but often doors were shut in his face. When he played supporting parts on Broadway, he was discovered again, and played Lillian Gish's leading man in THE WHITE SISTER. He became one of the most popular Hollywood stars of the twenties, and was considered as equal to Douglas Fairbanks in the swashbuckler genre. He was also hilarious in comedies like KIKI, and touching in ultra-romantic dramas like THE DARK ANGEL where he played a blinded war veteran, one of his famous self-sacrificial roles. He and Vilma Banky became a famous screen couple.

Sound films profited from his magnificent, finely modulated voice. After his split with Sam Goldwyn (Please read my comment on the Colman biography by R. Dixon Smith for the details) he started a successful career as free-lancer, and gave some of the finest performances on screen in A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THE PRISONER OF ZENDA and THE LIGHT THAT FAILED (as blind painter). Other films include THE TALK OF THE TOWN and the unforgettable amnesia drama RANDOM HARVEST. He won an oscar for his brilliant portrayal of a psychotic actor in A DOUBLE LIFE and made the witty quiz-show-comedy CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR.

His first marriage dragged for 15 alienated bitter years. His wife embarrassed him by showing up on sets and berating him in front of others. But bis second marriage, to actress Benita Hume was one of the happiest in Hollywood, and brought him, at the age of 53 his only daughter, who memorialized him lovingly in a biography. Lawrence Quirk's excellent biography will hopefully contribute to the rediscovery of a wonderful actor who deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest stars.

The Best "Films Of" series that Citdel has ever printed. Just Great, many thanks. Susan Hayward would have been so proud!

This is the best of the best of Susan Hayward. A review with love and dedication to viewers, who unlike me, did not have the fortune of meeting Mr. Moreno.

How did I meet Eduardo Moreno? In the late 1990's, I started a web page on Susan Hayward. It was titled the Susan Hayward Georgia Web Page. Why did I start a web page on actress who wasn't as famous as Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball and Joan Crawford. Precisely for that reason, I felt Susan Hayward should be in the same league as some of the other big stars. Susan was not only a beautiful actress but a smart one. Before I tell you about my encounter with Eduardo, let me tell you why I fell in love with Susan Hayward.

In my childhood, I fell in love with Susan Hayward. I remember stories my mother always told me while driving home from my grandparents on how she was so sad that Susan Hayward was dying. Susan Hayward at the time was younger than Farrah Fawcett, Goldie Hawn, and other big name older actresses of today. She was dying from brain tumors. However, Susan being the tough fighter as she was broke medical records and lived three youngers than what doctors expected. I fell in love with Susan for her courage and strength. Eduardo's book covers this story and on Susan's rise to fame, her struggles, and tragedies. There are many rare photos in this extensive book. Also, the book lists every movie Susan Hayward has appeared in and her rare television performances. Susan's only play "Mame" is mentioned with rare photographs. If you can't find the hardback book, buy the paperback only. Even if you have to pay $50, it is well worth it for this rare out of print book.

Now, how I met Eduardo. My web page required many sources and pictures to be used. Luckily, an email friend of mine knew Eduardo Moreno. She gave me his number and I called. He was very glad that I was doing a web page on Susan Hayward. Even after 15 years since his book was last published, Eduardo still thought and love Susan Hayward. Through arraignments and the loving care of my ex-significant other, I was able to fly up to New York and stay with Eduardo Moreno. It was a rare treat. He had scrap books piled high from the floor of his attic which had nothing but pictures and articles of Susan Hayward. We spent hours looking at some of the scrap books. Unfortantly in comparison to the Smithsonian Institute, it would have taken at least 2 weeks to see everything. Many of the rare pictures in the Films of Susan Hayward came from Eduardo's personal collection. Eduardo had a beautiful oil painting of Susan Hayward in his living room. We started a friendship and kept in touch over the next year. I visited Eduardo one more time around Christmas of 1999. I am glad I have pictures of the two of us and his autographed book of the Films of Susan Hayward. Unfortunately, My significant other and I had a nasty fight and I moved out of the house after 8 years. I had to go back to work and had to stop my Susan Hayward web page. I lost contact with Eduardo Moreno. I heard from my email friend that he wondered what happened to me. I was too ashamed to tell him that I had to stop the Susan Hayward web page. Finally, I heard in October 2000, Eduardo died from a sudden heartache. I was very sad. He was a wonderful author and friend. In all the books published about Susan Hayward, this is the best. Eduardo Moreno never made much money from the publishing of this book but was happy anyway because he could share his love for Susan with others. He was hoping a reprint would have materalized but it never happened. Today, I am not sad that Eduardo Moreno is dead. I am happy because I know he has finally got to meet Susan Hayward and will be with her forever.

In my memory of my sweet friend, Eduardo Moreno, please buy this book. Please have the priviledge of enjoying many rare photos and learning rare facts on this beautiful, gifted, underrated actress. Eduardo's book was created from love. It has been my honor to talk to you and be able to tell you about my rare encounter with Eduardo Moreno. Enjoy the book.

Our family thought this book was wonderful. My mother grew up in the Cumberland area while the dam was being built and we still have relatives there to this day. This book gives a delightful "feel" to the feeling of family and love that was so typical there during that time. It also gives an accurate depiction of the pain that progress may cause for those in it's path.

I think this is a great book! It talks about Lake Cumberland being formed. It made me realize what life was like before the Wolf Creek Dam was built. I enjoyed reading this book very much and think you will too, especially if you live near where the setting was like me.

I'm fortunate in that someone very special recognized my interests this year with a generous gift in Stuart Kirkfield's book.

Wayne, Elser, Howells and Carmichael's books are all tickled to have this new one sitting amongst them on my shelf. Stuart evidently has forgotten more about building and restoration than many of us will learn. But, thanks to his book we're all better makers due to his efforts.

Tight lines,

Gerald

This is a surprisingly insightful, comprehensive book on the subject. Starts with good overview of bamboo fly rod evaluation, and walks the reader through the entire process of stripping, repair, varnishing, and beyond. Also useful to people who aren't interested in restoring fly rods, but do want to learn more about them. Belongs on the book shelf of every fly fisherman!

This is the book to find out about the impact of the Russian Revolution in the U.S., before Stalinism. Cannon was the most important of the original American communist leaders-and a great writer to boot. In his easy and colorful style, he focuses on the critical importance of the Russian Revolution for his generation of working class militants. Those who rallied to its banner gave a vital impetus to all later fighters for social change. Among the most valuable lessons are how the communists defended all class-war prisoners, regardless of their adherence to communism, including the story about Big Bill Haywood and the International Labor Defense. Also interesting, is Cannon's appendix on the "Negro Question" (as it was then known). I'm convinced by his thesis-that the Russian Revolution and the existence of a U.S. communist party had a liberating effect on the Black struggle in the 1920s.

Cannon was the leader of the genuine American revolutionists who continued Communism and didnot succumb to Stalin and the degeneration of the American Communist Party. This is the story of the founding, the struggle of American Communism before Stalinism turned the Communist Party into its opposite. Here too is much history of the IWW, the Socialist party, and the other fighters who came before. This is not nostalgia, but written by a fighter for other fighters to learn to use these experiences to continue Cannon's fight to change the world. . . . I discovered this book in the library 35 years ago when I was dismayed by how rotten American Stalinists of the Maoist and Moscow varieties were and thought I would abandon trying to change the world. This book inspired me with the genuine revolutionism that came before, and that fighters like Cannon continued the fight, I found worth giving my life to.

A review of this book has been published in the following journal:

Houle, A. (1999). Book-Review: Foraging for survival: Yearling baboons in Africa. Behavioural Processes. (in press)

This is a story of how eleven juvenile baboons feed themselves. The setting: Amboseli National Park, Kenya. This is, however, much more than a simple story. Throughout, Altmann engages the reader with his elegant analysis - rich with ecological detail - of the costs and benefits primates must negotiate in their daily pursuit of requisite nutrients and energy. Baboons are exemplary eclectic omnivores; still, as Altmann quotes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch." Bearing this in mind, he sets out to evaluate the balancing act baboons must achieve in maximizing nutrient intake, while at the same time minimizing toxic accumulation of plant secondary metabolites.

At the outset, Altmann describes what the baboons ate, how they ate it, and what foods they avoided altogether during the study period (1975-1976). He then identifies what baboons should eat. A foraging strategy is an ultimate endpoint, achieved via an array of potential tactical routes. Altmann evaluates both the feeding tactics and the eclectic foraging strategy of his young baboons by identifying the degree to which they deviate from an optimum model of adaptive feeding traits. The baboons' actual dietary intake is compared to the specifications of adequate and optimal diets; this is done for both an average yearling's diet, as well as on individual variance from the predicted diets.

Deviations from the optimum are viewed as indicators of potential differences in reproductive fitness. Although the feeding data stem from research undertaken in the mid-1970s, Altmann takes advantage of the two succeeding decades to relate differences in juvenile diets to longevity and fitness outcomes later in life. This historical depth is particularly valuable because it tests the model by evaluating whether those baboons that come closer to the optimum as juveniles have higher fitness as adults.

Altmann expands on the extreme selectivity exhibited by baboons, providing details on the toxic load, protein, carbohydrate, water content, and load of various plant species and the manner in which baboons maximize (or minimize) their intake of these food components. Finally, he assesses the anatomical and behavioral attributes that may contribute to making baboons one of the most successful and broadly distributed primate species. To complement the main body of the text, Altmann includes a series of appendices and tables in which he evaluates various methodological and definitional issues relating to calculating feeding bouts and dietary intake. Here, he presents additional detail on diet composition and the nutritional and toxic attributes of plant foods.

The work's emphasis on juvenile feeding behavior is an unusual yet valuable feature. This developmental stage is often overlooked in studies of non-human primate behavior and ecology, despite the fact that this period, and the transition from a milk diet to an adult diet, are undoubtedly critical to our understanding of adult fitness and life history patterns.

However, some caution is warranted: This book was not intended for the casual student of animal feeding behavior, nor for those new to optimal foraging theory. Altmann's models, food intake calculations, and feeding bout formulae are exacting, and quite abstracted from the experience of observing feeding behavior. Before embarking into this volume, non-modelers will have to review the technical terminology that necessarily accompanies Optimization Theory. In addition, I do not view the generalizations (outlined in Chapter Two) based on the relationships among body size, patch size, and dietary selectivity to be particularly illuminating. Too many exceptions to his proposed relationships can be found for such generalizations to be of much explanatory utility.

Nonetheless, this book is destined to become a classic in primate feeding behavior. It is exhaustive in its breadth, a pleasure to read, and sets the standard for amalgamation of modeling theory and ecological observation.

Forget everything you know about this world - you need to suspend disbelief when you pick up Frantic Planet, and you'll be greatly rewarded for doing so.

When I bought this book, I honestly didn't know what to expect: was I going to get a series of throwaway stories that I was going to forget straight away, or would it be an astounding piece of writing?

Well, almost five months after buying the book, I still find myself flicking through it from time to time to relive the tales of the lunatic lottery winner, Ted Danson, and my own personal favourite, the man who was held hostage by an artist.

It's one of the best fiction books you read this year that hasn't been commandeered by a huge media-led bandwagon. Buy the book!

Frantic Planet is the literary bridge between reality and surreality.

The stories include three separate realities: the world we inhabit and know (complete with effectively apt cultural references); our world as it could be without social constraints; and a world where our laws of physics do not apply. The collection veers back and forth between these different worlds which, in the hands of a less-skilled writer might easily be clumsy and destroy suspension of disbelief. But here the juxtaposition creates an effective sense of uncertainty: by the time the reader deduces which rules apply to a particular piece, they will already be compelled by the story. And so that world becomes just as real as our own.

The collection also varies widely in length. Some are as brief as a couple of hundred words and, as might be expected, these can be hit and miss. It seems likely the author has produced the book over a lengthy period as there appears to be a notable disparity among the briefer stories in terms of the skill with which the pretext, the hook and the payoff are delivered.

It is the longer tales that highlight the anthology, and perhaps not coincidentally they all inhabit the middle of the three literary worlds: that which follows our conventions of time and space, but rejects our conventions of behaviour . 'Just a statistic' is a twisted literal interpretation taking to ever more grotesque extremes. 'Rooting for truffles' examines the consequences of a 'What if?' scenario where only fate will ever allow the reader to confirm their conviction that they would never behave that way. And the centrepiece 'Simple Choices, clocking in at 55 pages (a quarter of the full book) treads a dangerous line between the revulsion provoked by the story's events and the contemplation provoked by its themes. The specifics are of a fantasy world but the message is firmly rooted in our own.

A full appreciation of the subtleties of Frantic Planet may be contingent on a culture and humour overlap between audience and author. But the powers and burdens of free will are all that is needed to appreciate the way physical events in the book's fictional reality relate to less tangible ideals and behaviour in our physical world.