Books Briefly
Books Briefly Every Sunday Night MASTERPIECES by Alistair Cooke Alfred A. Knopf. 240 pp. $25. In his preface, Alistair Cooke notes that these reminiscences of a decade as the host of BBC...
...Some of the central ideas of the European Nuclear Disarmament (END) movement are available in this paperback volume, a U.S...
...10.50...
...Subversive Songs TOO MANY SONGS BY TOM LEHRER WITH NOT ENOUGH DRAWINGS BY RONALDSEARLE Pantheon...
...The title is only half-true: There's no such thing as too many songs by Tom Lehrer, and the three dozen or so for which words and music are provided here is barely an adequate sampling...
...In her account of Fansler's investigation of the death, Cross presents a scathing picture of a misogynist academic universe and a sensitive, sometimes critical portrayal of a radical feminist commune...
...In the latest, Kate Fansler, an English professor and amateur detective, goes to Harvard to aid a woman scholar who had been hired only to fulfill the terms of a grant...
...The songs are mostly from the 1950s, and they wear remarkably well...
...See the October 1981 issue of The Progressive for a sample of his style, and then go out and buy this book...
...Curiously, Cooke makes no mention of the popular series of many episodes, The Palli-sers and The Forsyte Saga...
...Europeans by the hundreds of thousands have recently made clear that they reject the rationale of nuclear deterrence which, unfortunately, still passes for "realism" in this country...
...Thompson and Dan Smith Monthly Review Press...
...If enough copies are sold, maybe we can force Lehrer out of retirement...
...Instead, it is clear that we have a first-strike policy, and, in fact, we have already made first-strike threats, often against nations with no nuclear weapons of their own...
...160 pp...
...He himself places greater trust in powers closer to home: in local, state, and regional efforts to protect oceans and seashores...
...Our lamentable habit of assaulting the seas without thought of the consequences— dumping sewage in them, for instance, or drilling oil wells off shore—Marx blames in part on Federal policies shaped by corporate preferences...
...Several essays with U.S...
...While the mystery is no cliff-hanger, the unique and well-developed characters more than compensate for the lack of suspense...
...Lehrer was one of the first—and remains one of the few—to create subversive songs designed to undermine official pomposities about nuclear weapons and other contemporary horrors...
...version of the 1980 British edition...
...The scholar, disliked by both the male establishment and the militant feminist community, ultimately dies mysteriously...
...16.50 hardcover...
...sources have replaced British essays, and a new introduction by Daniel Ellsberg adapts the collection to the perspectives of American readers...
...No Place to Hide PROTEST AND SURVIVE edited by E.P...
...Of the essays themselves, E. P. Thompson's "A Letter to America" alone makes the volume crucially important...
...So they do...
...Amanda Cross mysteries are a breakthrough in the genre: they are witty, well-written, full of literary references, feminist, and—except for the requisite murder— nonviolent...
...Together, they decisively discredit current attempts to portray the European movement as naive or one-sided...
...On the other hand, five fiendish drawings by the incomparable Ronald Searle are certainly not enough...
...216 pp...
...This book should help revitalize the peace movement here...
...Other pieces cover a broad range of issues, from the characteristics of the newest theater nuclear weapons to comparisons of Soviet and American military-industrial institutions to strategies for disarmament and conversion to peacetime production...
...4.95...
...Dutton...
...Save the Seas THE OCEANS: OUR LAST RESOURCE by Wesley Marx Sierra Club Books...
...But where is Lehrer now that we really need him...
...Transformations of books into Masterpiece Theater plays, Cooke observes, prompted "incessant demand" on booksellers "for authors long forgotten or out of print or known only to tiny publics...
...332 pp...
...Foul Play DEATH IN A TENURED POSITION by Amanda Cross E.P...
...Ellsberg provides a devastating refutation of the pervasive belief that the U.S...
...13.95...
...156 pp...
...The story of his own efforts to save a modest southern California bay is the liveliest part of his book, which, as a whole, reads a little too much like a long term paper...
...In his preface, Alistair Cooke notes that these reminiscences of a decade as the host of BBC Masterpiece Theater are "meant to arouse pleasurable memories...
...8.95 paper...
...Taking a swing at the popular notion of oceans as "resource cornucopia," Wesley Marx suggests that we mine junkyards rather than seabeds and build carp ponds rather than high-technology fishing fleets...
...strategic nuclear policy is purely defensive in nature...
...Devotees of Masterpiece Theater will recollect /, Claudius, Poldark (according to Cooke "the resounding favorite of all our plays"), Pride and Prejudice, The Golden Bowl, Cousin Bette, Lillie, The Duchess of Duke Street, Upstairs, Downstairs, the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, Disraeli, Testament of Youth, and others...
...they are illuminated with photographs and illustrations that square superbly with his intent...
...Cooke's memoir is vivid nostalgia, and juicy social history to boot...
Vol. 46 • January 1982 • No. 1
