Best of
American

1973

Diving Into the Wreck


Adrienne Rich - 1973
    / The words are purposes. / The words are maps. / I came to see the damage that was done / and the treasures that prevail." These provocative poems move with the power of Rich's distinctive voice.

84 Charing Cross Road / The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street


Helene Hanff - 1973
    For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin. Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72


Hunter S. Thompson - 1973
    Thompson wrote for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the 1972 election campaign of President Richard M. Nixon and his unsuccessful opponent, Senator George S. McGovern. Hunter focuses largely on the Democratic Party's primaries and the breakdown of the national party as it splits between the different candidates.With drug-addled alacrity and incisive wit, Thompson turned his jaundiced eye and gonzo heart to the repellent and seductive race for president, deconstructed the campaigns, and ended up with a political vision that is eerily prophetic

Trilogy: The Walls Do Not Fall / Tribute to the Angels / The Flowering of the Rod


H.D. - 1973
    Trilogy's three long poems rank with T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" and Ezra Pound's "Pisan Cantos." The first book of the Trilogy, "The Walls Do Not Fall," published in the midst of the "fifty thousand incidents" of the London blitz, maintains the hope that though "we have no map; / possibly we will reach haven,/ heaven." "Tribute to Angels" describes new life springing from the ruins, and finally, in "The Flowering of the Rod"—with its epigram "...pause to give/ thanks that we rise again from death and live."—faith in love and resurrection is realized in lyric and strongly Biblical imagery.

Breakfast of Champions


Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 1973
    What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.

Burr


Gore Vidal - 1973
    With their broad canvas and large cast of fictional and historical characters, the novels in this series present a panorama of the American political and imperial experience as interpreted by one of its most worldly, knowing, and ironic observers. Burr is a portrait of perhaps the most complex and misunderstood of the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. Burr retains much of his political influence if not the respect of all. And he is determined to tell his own story. As his amanuensis, he chooses Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, a young New York City journalist, and together they explore both Burr's past and the continuing political intrigues of the still young United States.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street


Helene Hanff - 1973
    A zesty memoir of the celebrated writer's travels to England where she meets the cherished friends from 84, Charing Cross Road.

In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women


Alice Walker - 1973
    Taken as a whole, their stories form an enlightening, disturbing view of life in the South.

Beulah Land


Lonnie Coleman - 1973
    BEULAH LAND....where the old South as it really was is brought to intense life, in all its outward splendor and secret shame.

Sula


Toni Morrison - 1973
    Sula Peace has rejected the life Nel has embraced, escaping to college, and submerging herself in city life. When she returns to her roots, it is as a rebel and a wanton seductress. Eventually, both women must face the consequences of their choices. Together, they create an unforgettable portrait of what it means and costs to be a black woman in America.

Gravity's Rainbow


Thomas Pynchon - 1973
    Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative, and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.

The New Journalism


Tom Wolfe - 1973
    Thompson.

A History of American Law


Lawrence M. Friedman - 1973
    Friedman tells the whole fascinating story of American law from its beginnings in the colonies to the present day. By showing how close the life of the law is to the economic and political life of the country, he makes a complex subject understandable and engrossing. A History of American Law presents the achievements and failures of the American legal system in the context of America's commercial and working world, family practices, and attitudes toward property, government, crime, and justice. Now completely revised and updated, this groundbreaking work incorporates new material regarding slavery, criminal justice, and twentieth-century law. For laymen and students alike, this remains the only comprehensive authoritative history of American law.

State of Grace


Joy Williams - 1973
    It is the story of Kate, despised by her mother, bound to her father by ties stronger and darker than blood. It is the story of her attempted escapes−in detached sexual encounters, at a Southern college populated by spoiled and perverse beauties, and in a doomed marriage to a man who cannot understand what she is running from. Witty, erotic, searing acute, STATE OF GRACE bears the inimitable stamp of one of our fines and most provocative writers.

Maxfield Parrish


Coy Ludwig - 1973
    A compendium of the life and work of Maxfield Parrish, it is an essential part of a Parrish library. For the collector, the publisher has included a value guide to some of the products that bear Parrish images. Examples of Parrish's most famous book illustrations are shown, including selections from Mother Goose in Prose and the Arabian Nights. Also included are his famous magazine covers-from Life, Collier's, Harper's Weekly, etc., as well as all the landscapes that he painted for Brown and Bigelow, who reproduced them as calendars every year from 1936 to 1963. One of the highlights of the book is the chapter on Parrish's technique, examining in depth his materials, favorite methods, and unique way of painting. In addition, there is a lengthy excerpt from an unpublished manuscript by Maxfield Parrish, Jr., explaining step-by-step his father's glazing technique and use of photography in his work. This definitive study also contains numerous revealing excerpts from Parrish's unpublished correspondence with family, friends, and clients.

Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860


Richard Slotkin - 1973
    Using the popular literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries-including captivity narratives, the Daniel Boone tales, and the writings of Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Melville-Slotkin traces the full development of this myth.

Theophilus North


Thornton Wilder - 1973
    Setting out to see the world in the summer of 1926, Theophilus North gets as far as Newport, Rhode Island, before his car breaks down. To support himself, Theophilus takes jobs in the elegant mansions along Ocean Drive, just as Wilder himself did in the same decade. Soon the young man finds himself playing the roles of tutor, spy, confidant, lover, friend, and enemy as he becomes entangled in the intrigues of both upstairs and downstairs in a glittering society dominated by leisure.Narrated by the elderly North from a distance of fifty years, Theophilus North is a fascinating commentary on youth and education from the vantage point of age, and deftly displays Wilder's trademark wit juxtaposed with his lively and timeless ruminations on what really matters about life, love, and work at the end of the day—even after a visit to Newport.

Ring of Bone: Collected Poems, 1950-1971


Lew Welch - 1973
    

The Dogs Bark


Truman Capote - 1973
    Through Truman Capote's eyes and artistry we visit such places as Hatti, Tangier, Hollywood, Paris, Manhattan, Italy and Brooklyn, we encounter such figures as Isak Dinesen, Mae West, Louis Armstrong, Colette, Humphrey Bogart, Ezra Pound, Marilyn Monroe, and Marlon Brando, and we observe the evolution of Capote from a young man in the golden glow of early success to a renowned author viewing his life, work, world and the creation of his last incomplete novel -- Answered Prayers. Reprinted in its entirety is The Muses Are Heard, Capote's fascinating, excruciatingly funny account of the "Porgy and Bess" touring company's visit to the Soviet Union.Every page is stamped with the unique sensibility and inimitable style of Truman Capote and provides vivid evidence of why Norman Mailer has termed him "the most perfect writer of a generation."

Strong Opinions


Vladimir Nabokov - 1973
    In this collection of interviews, articles, and editorials, Vladimir Nabokov ranges over his life, art, education, politics, literature, movies, and modern times, among other subjects. Strong Opinions offers his trenchant, witty, and always engaging views on everything from the Russian Revolution to the correct pronunciation of Lolita.

The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone


Robin Lee Graham - 1973
    Recounts the voyage of Robin Lee Graham, a California sixteen-year-old, who spent nearly five years sailing alone around the world.Photo Illustrated, many photos of Graham by National Geographic photographers.

The Art of Andrew Wyeth


Wanda M. Corn - 1973
    This was the first book to explore the depth, richness and diversity of Andrew Wyeth's art. 174pp.

After Twenty Years


O. Henry - 1973
    The skill of the legendary master of the twist ending in short stories is perhaps nowhere better exemplified than in his 'After Twenty Years.'

Searches and Seizures


Stanley Elkin - 1973
    Infused with Elkin's signature wit and richly drawn characters, The Bailbondsman, The Making of Ashenden, and The Condominium, are the creations of a literary virtuoso at the pinnacle of his craft.

The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States


William Loren Katz - 1973
    Deadwood Dick, Mary Fields, a.k.a. Stagecoach Mary, Cranford Goldsby, a.k.a. Cherokee Bill—and a host of other intrepid men and women who marched into the wilderness alongside Chief Osceola, Billy the Kid, and Geronimo.Featuring captivating narratives and photographs (many from the author’s world-famous collection), The Black West enriches and deepens our stirring frontier saga. From slave runaways during the colonial era, to the journeys of Lewis and Clark, to the charge at San Juan Hill, Katz vividly recounts the crucial contributions African Americans made during scores of frontier encounters. With its stirring pictures and vivid eyewitness accounts, The Black West is an exhilarating treasure trove.

Face to Face with Fear Transforming Fear Into Love


Krishnananda Trobe - 1973
    Sharing openly from his own life, his experiences working as a psychiatrist and seminar leader and his many years as a disciple of an enlightened spiritual master, Krishnananda (Thomas O. Trobe M.D.) takes us on a journey of self-discovery, self-love and healing. The approach and the message is simple. Through acceptance, understanding and compassion, we can uncover and heal the deepest wounds of our soul. This book is designed for anyone who longs to heal and to experience love. Do we ever ask ourselves what causes us so much anxiety? Why do we suffer when we don't get the love we want and need? What is the source of our fear and insecurities and how can we heal them? These are the questions that the author addresses in this book. Hiding behind our protections, denial and addictive behaviors, is a profoundly panicked and wounded part of us. Until we make friends with this frightened child inside, our life can never be a joyful and loving experience and we live in a state of co-dependency either in conflict, disappointment or in isolation. But when we open to our wounded vulnerability and heal it, we bring love and fulfillment into our lives. This book describes this healing journey. It is easy to read and full of personal examples which helps us to realize that we are all in the same boat - a boat of healing our wounds so that we can enjoy life as we are meant to enjoy it.

Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years


J. Anthony Lukas - 1973
    Anthony Lukas’s account of the Watergate story to date. Six months later, a second installment ran in another full issue. Later the Times asked him to write a third issue, on the impeachment, which never appeared because of Nixon’s intervening resignation. But all of Lukas’s painstaking reporting on Nixon’s last months in office appears here, along with added information on every aspect of Watergate.Widely acclaimed as a major text of the Watergate saga, J. Anthony Lukas’s Nightmare is a masterwork of investigation, highlighted by in-depth character sketches of the key players. For students of history coming to these events for the first time, this book reveals in depth the particular trauma of a nation in turmoil; for those who remember, the upheaval and what was at stake are once more brought to life.

The Best of LIFE


David E. Scherman - 1973
    Luce set for LIFE in the original prospectus. For the next 36 years the editors kept that promise faithfully, reporting on life, the world, and great events with skill, dedication and imagination. Just how well they did their job the reader will see in the 304 pages - 100 of them in color - and 680 photographs (including 77 LIFE covers) that make up this splendid anthology. -- from the book jacket.

America, a Prophecy: A New Reading of American Poetry from Pre-Columbian Times to the Present


Jerome Rothenberg - 1973
    From the front cover: "American Indian poetry, Afro-American blues and narratives, the scared writings of the Shakers and other native sects, the verse experiments of the early twentieth century, side by side with established and forgotten poets from colonial times to the 1970s, reveal the hidden unity and power of America's poetry."

The Secret of the Seven Crows


Wylly Folk St. John - 1973
    There was something mighty spooky about that huge old clapboard structure behind the sand dunes and the sea oats. It was as gray as the stormy twilight sky behind it and the rolling waves of the Gulf in front of it and the Spanish moss that hung on the bent and twisted live oak and cedar trees all around it.Shelley's family moves into an old mansion on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and discover that there is a mystery to be solved and a treasure to be found before the house can really belong to them. Shelley wants to solve the mystery all by herself...but encounters danger...intriguing clues...a poltergeist... and spooky Gulf Coast legends.-from the back cover

The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz


Russell Hoban - 1973
    In the ruins of a palace at Nineveh, his son Boaz-Jachin finds the wall-carving of a great lion dying on the spear of an ancient king.

How I Work as a Poet and Other Essays


Lew Welch - 1973
    

Star Dog


A.M. Lightner - 1973
    On the same night that a UFO is seen zooming away from the farm, Holton and his friend Willy find a strange black dog lying near the road--a victim of a hit-and-run driver.The dog has soft, luxurious fur and strange eyes, and Willy insists that it came from the vanished space ship."Don't be ridiculous," Holton scoffs.But weeks later--when Holton's pet collie gives birth to a remarkable black pup--it looks as though Willy is Right!the pup is like no other dog on Earth

Rosa Parks


Eloise Greenfield - 1973
    Years later, Rosa Parks changed the lives of African American in Montgomery—and all across America—starting with one courageous act. How could one quiet, gentle woman have started it all? This is her story.Complete with black-and-white illustrations by Gil Ashby, this chapter book by bestselling and award-winning author Eloise Greenfield is the perfect introduction to Rosa Parks for early readers.* Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC) * Carter G. Woodson Book Award *

Everyday Use


Alice Walker - 1973
    Her use of quilting as a metaphor for the creative legacy that African Americans inherited from their maternal ancestors changed the way we define art, women's culture, and African American lives. By putting African American women's voices at the center of the narrative for the first time, "Everyday Use" anticipated the focus of an entire generation of black women writers. This casebook includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of Walker's life, an authoritative text of "Everyday Use" and of "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," an interview with Walker, six critical essays, and a bibliography. The contributors are Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Thadious M. Davis, Margot Anne Kelley, John O'Brien, Elaine Showalter, and Mary Helen Washington.

Rabbit Boss


Thomas Sanchez - 1973
    The legendary, epic novel tells the story of four generations of the Washo in Nevada and Eastern California--a story of dreams, dying, the loss of power, death and apotheosis.

National Suicide: Military aid to the Soviet Union


Antony C. Sutton - 1973
    Technology that maimed and killed American boys in Korea and Vietnam.

Music is My Mistress


Duke Ellington - 1973
    Told in his own way, in his own words, a symphony written by the King of Jazz. His story spans and defines a half-century of modern music.This man who created over 1500 compositions was as much at home in Harlem's Cotton Club in the ‘20s as he was at a White House birthday celebration in his honor in the ‘60s. For Duke knew everyone and savored them all. Passionate about his music and the people who made music, he counted as his friends hundreds of the musicians who changed the face of music throughout the world: Bechet, Basie, Armstrong, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra, to name a few of them. Here are 100 photographs to give us an intimate view of Duke's world—his family, his friends, his associates.What emerges most strongly in his commitment to music, the mistress for whom he saves the fullest intensity of his passion. ”Lovers have come and gone, but only my mistress stays,” he says. He composed not only songs that all the world has sung, but also suites, sacred works, music for stage and screen and symphonies. This rich book, the embodiment of the life and works of the Duke, is replete with appendices listing singers, arrangers, lyricists and the symphony orchestras with whom the Duke played. There is a book to own and cherish by all who love Jazz and the contributions made to it by the Duke.

The Flight of Peter Fromm


Martin Gardner - 1973
    His spiritual odyssey is narrated by his mentor, a professor at the divinity school - who is actually a humanist who believes neither in God nor in an afterlife. Although Peter never abandons his theism or his admiration for Jesus, he reaches a point where he feels it would be hypocritical to remain within the church and to become the evangelist he had hoped to be.The counterpoint between Peter and the narrator reflects the eternal conflict between theism and atheism. In following the changes of Peter's beliefs, almost every aspect of Protestant theology and ethics is explored. The evolution of Peter's faith parallels the evolution of Christian theology, from the day of Pentecost to contemporary liberal theology.

Cow Country (Tumbleweed)


Will James - 1973
    Each story features the author's high-spirited charcoal and pen-and-ink drawings. First published in 1927.

The Favorite Uncle Remus


Joel Chandler Harris - 1973
    This book brings together for the first time in one volume the best stories of Joel Chandler Harris.

Brion Gysin Let the Mice In


Brion Gysin - 1973
    

The Last Carousel


Nelson Algren - 1973
    What we have here in this big fat volume is a cockeyed chrestomathy of 37 Algren pieces... with his hallmark stamped on every link." —The New York Times Book Review"The range of the book is satisfying—rich, will titillate even the most fastidious dilettante or culture vulture... also contains pieces that will make you laugh your head off. Once you begin reading it, you will not be able to put it aside." —The Chicago Tribune"Essential Algren." —The Washington Post"Very good, fast, funny and tough... Algren, where have you been hiding?" —The San Francisco ChronicleHere again is Algren's rich output from the 1960s and '70s, tough, streetwise stories and travelogues from around the world: accounts of brothels in Vietnam and Mexico, stories of the boxing ring, and reminiscences of his beloved Chicago White Sox, among other subjects.

The World of William Penn


Genevieve Foster - 1973
    From the courtyards of the Sun King to the royal chambers of Charles II, Penn was a "Friend" of kings and princes, scientists and Native Americans. A member of the Royal Society, Penn knew Edmund Halley and Isaac Newton. He met Peter the Great while the Czar was visiting London and introduced him to Quaker ideas. As the founder of Pennsylvania, Penn treated the Native American tribes with dignity and respect and by his integrity established the longest standing peace treaty between European settlers and Native Americans. His commitment to religious freedom became a cornerstone of American democracy. In her inimitable fashion, Foster has brought Penn's story to a new generation of readers. --Rea Berg, Editor 2008

The Orchid Stories


Kenward Elmslie - 1973
    . . comes in the end to seem like paradise.“ The Orchid Stories presents us with interwoven stories as delicate and exquisite as the flowers for which they’re named, conveying an almost otherworldly beauty. Images, moods, and characters recur with the clarity of a dream: Phil, the little boy gigolo; Mummers and Mummy, who “adopt” him; the alluring Diana Vienna; and the eccentric Dr. Schmidlapp, who plans to capture the rare “Native Innards” orchid precisely at the stroke of midnight.

Knowing Woman


Irene Claremont de Castillejo - 1973
    Characteristic of feminine consciousness, she writes, is diffuse awareness, which recognizes the unity of all life and promotes acceptance and relationship. The masculine attitude is one of focused consciousness, the capacity to formulate ideas and to change, invent, and create. Concerned with the experience of women in a culture dominated by masculine values, the author discusses topics such as the animus (the masculine "soul image" in a woman's unconscious); women's roles in relation to work, friends, children, and lovers; and issues such as abortion, aging, and self-determination.

The Alien Condition


Stephen Goldin - 1973
    From the front cover: "One dozen original new science-fiction stories of other life on other worlds."

Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business


Jessica Mitford - 1973
    A candid examination of American prison practices is based on the author's extensive research and workshop experiences as an inmate.

The New Apocrypha: A Guide to Strange Science and Occult Beliefs


John Sladek - 1973
    Unfortunately, the breadth of the topics is probably beyond anyone, and particularly the author, to treat in sufficient detail that convincing cases may be made in most instances. The monumental difficulty throughout history with the occult has been the magnitude of rational effort needed to overcome some simple act of faith, however misguided. Regrettably, many times this book offers cleverjuxtaposition of experiences and rhetoric to beat down claims rather than mounting what facts are known and establishing bounds for hopeful expectations. The body of literature on the topic might have discouraged a less courageous writer and Sladek has worked mightily in producing such a survey of what man has found to believe in, which defies much of practiced science. Seven major sections of the text consider individual topics including UFOs, lost continents, monsters, food cults, numerology, ESP and astrology. The eighth section touches on the bases of these beliefs by considering the place of rumor, prophecy and perceptual psychology as related to the occult. References and bibliography comprise 24 pages. The author’s style generally provides the reader with his greatest rewards, for while being adamant in his disbelief of all this nonsense, he never loses his playful view of people trying to survive coincidence of the most astounding nature.

Witt


Patti Smith - 1973
    The Assírio e Alvim edition is a bilingual edition, starting with the translation to Portuguese and then with the original version. It contains photos and drawings.

Splendide-Hôtel


Gilbert Sorrentino - 1973
    Each chapter serves as an opportunity for the author to expand on thoughts and images suggested by a letter of the alphabet, as well as to reflect upon the workings of the imagination, particularly in the art of William Carlos Williams and Arthur Rimbaud. Reminiscent of the philosophical treatise/poem "On Being Blue" by William H. Glass, "Splendide-Hotel" is a Grand Hotel of the mind, splendidly conceived.

Francis Marion: The Swamp Fox


Hugh F. Rankin - 1973
    

A Good Day to Die


Jim Harrison - 1973
    Their plans were conceived in a drunken excitement and resulted in more horror than any of them could have imagined.  There was the poet able to retreat into beatific reveries of superb fishing in cold, fast streams; the Vietnam vet consumed by uppers, downers and violence; and the girl who loved only one of them -- at first.  With their ideals ostensibly in order, they set out from Florida to save the Grand Canyon from a dam they believed was being built.  Along with the tapedeck for the car, the liquor and the drugs, there was also a case of dynamite.

Longtime Californ': A Documentary Study of an American Chinatown


Victor Nee - 1973
    Examines San Francisco's Chinatown, exploring the community itself, the role which its people played in the making of the American West, & the rich tradition & culture which it spawned.

Lay This Laurel: An Album on the Saint-Gaudens Memorial on Boston Common Honoring Black and White Men Together Who Served the Union Cause with Robert Gould Shaw and Died with Him July 18, 1863


Richard Benson - 1973
    Their heroic but futile battle at Fort Wagner was memorialized by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Boston Common in 1897. Both the commemorative book and limited-edition volume depict the monument in stirring detail while celebrating its 100-year anniversary. For photography connoisseurs and Civil War buffs. First Edition, 1973

Drawing made easy;: A step by step guide to drawing for young artists


E.G. Lutz - 1973
    Drawing Made Easy, a Helpful Book for Young Artists the Way to Begin and Finish Your Sketches, Clearly Shown Step By Step

Poems


Alan Seeger - 1973
    Seeger moved with his family to Staten Island at the age of one and remained there until the age of ten. In 1900 his family moved to Mexico for two years, which influenced the imagery of some of his poetry. Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion so that he could fight for the Allies in World War I. He was killed in action at Belloy-en-Santerre, famously cheering on his fellow soldiers in a successful charge after being hit several times himself by machine gun fire. One of his more famous poems, I Have a Rendezvous with Death, was published posthumously. Indeed, a recurrent theme in both his poetic works and his personal writings prior to falling in battle was his desire for his life to end gloriously at an early age.

Only Couples Need Apply


Doris Miles Disney - 1973
    Act One: find a wealthy old woman in need of companionship. Act Two: have lovely, sympathetic Gretchen insinuate herself into the lonely dowager's personal life and financial affairs. Then call in Jay to bring down the final curtain with a cold-blooded smile and a bullet through the unfortunate senior citizen's brain. It looked as if the two killers were in for a long and successful run. But then Jay decided to improvise a little. And suddenly the murderous duo was about to find themselves cast in roles they had never rehearsed--as the victims...

Mother Goose


Anonymous - 1973
    The Mother Goose nursery rhymes are an enduring body of beloved wisdom and whimsy, draawn from popular songs and rhymes, folklore and folk songs. The first published edition contained only 55 entries - later collections as many as 750. This sampler presents some of the most familiar rhymes, which generations of children have responded to and passed along.

The House of the Solitary Maggot


James Purdy - 1973
    Not just because he was despicably rich, nor because he owned all their farms, or sired the wild young men who tore up the roads with their galloping horses—it was because they could not pronounce the word magnate, which Mr. Skegg assuredly was. Lady Bythewaite, his common-law wife, had a devouring love that filled her entire existence, but never affected her iron will and the implacable destiny that led from it. Only Clarence of the three sons could claim the Skegg name, and at the first opportunity he ran off to New York to change it. When he came back, it was with a new name, silent picture fame, and a deadly vengeance to act out. Owen Hawkins was the "acknowledged" son who lived with Lady Bythewaite. A delicate lad, his world included each of his family, with a devotion that was frightening. Aiken Cusworth was the bastard. A great hulking horse-tamer with the smell of the fields and animals on him, he had a single bent that yanked man and beast to the line of his terrible whim. Together, they lived in the house of the solitary maggot.