A collection of musings about people, the English countryside, literature - whatever came into his mind that he felt was worth sharing - by a poet, hiA collection of musings about people, the English countryside, literature - whatever came into his mind that he felt was worth sharing - by a poet, hiker, and general connoisseur of life. A fascinating read....more
This is exactly what the title says. It's a wonderful book filled with photographs of paintings and artists and containing a wealth of stories and hisThis is exactly what the title says. It's a wonderful book filled with photographs of paintings and artists and containing a wealth of stories and history. I knew something about some of the artists and nothing about others. I came away from reading this with a sense of the artists - their work, their overall history, and their lives in Paris, many living and painting there under the GI Bill. (The book also makes it clear that there were a number of important American female artists working in Paris during the same years.) Highly recommended.
I'll put in another plug for libraries here. I saw an article in the NY Times a few weeks ago about an exhibition at NYU's Grey Art Museum/ Gallery in Manhattan - Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France 1916-1962. I knew that I wouldn't get to the museum before the show closed, so I wondered if there were a book. I checked Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and there was a book, though with no reviews or ratings. Then, I checked our library system to see if they had a copy. I didn't have much hope but, lo and behold, the Woodstock Library had a copy. I put in a request and had it in my hands a few days later. Thanks be to libraries! I never would have seen this book otherwise.
This is a coffee table sized book and is a celebration of 50 years in the publishing business written by the publisher himself. David Godine spent 50 This is a coffee table sized book and is a celebration of 50 years in the publishing business written by the publisher himself. David Godine spent 50 years publishing books that he believed in and published them in handsome/beautiful (take your pick) editions. I've seen books published under the Godine imprint for over 40 of those years, and while I always admired the look and feel of the books, there have been times when I had the feeling that the look and feel was more important than the content. Perhaps that's just me and perhaps its a reflection that no reader will like every book in a publisher's catalog.
This is a handsomely done valentine from the publisher to himself and is worth reading. Perhaps it might be an even better idea to seek out some of the Godine books that might appeal to you and read them....more
When I began reading this book, I found a sales slip inside that said that I bought it in April, 2001, which meant that it had been sitting on one of When I began reading this book, I found a sales slip inside that said that I bought it in April, 2001, which meant that it had been sitting on one of my bookshelves for 21 1/2 years! Penelope Lively is one of my favorite writers, so I can't come up with a reason why I hadn't read it for all of that time. All I can say is that I read many of her other books and books by other authors during that 21 1/2 years and this one slipped through the cracks. Anyway, I finally did read it and, as with all short story collections, some stories will appeal to a reader in varying degrees and in different ways. I found several that were disturbing, a number that made me laugh, and my favorite, "The Clarinettist and the Bride's Aunt", a story I'm sure I'll return to from time to time. (I admit that I can be somewhat of a romantic at times, so YMMV on that one.) In the end, I'm happy to have read this collection and to add it to my Penelope Lively collection....more
When I began listening to jazz (more years ago than I want to think about), Martin Williams was a mentor. I used to read his magazine columns and reviWhen I began listening to jazz (more years ago than I want to think about), Martin Williams was a mentor. I used to read his magazine columns and reviews and, later on, his books. I learned much from Mr. Williams' writings but, as is almost inevitable, eventually I found my own paths of listening and set Martin Williams aside. I had my own ideas about listening and found some of his ideas contrary to mine. I felt that I didn't need Martin Williams' guidance any longer.
Recently, I decided to revisit what may be Mr. Williams' best work, The Jazz Tradition, to find out what I could learn from it all these years later. Well, it turned out that I still have much to learn. (As I get older, I'm happy to find that there's always more to learn.) Rereading this book, I found that I still have disagreements with Martin Williams. I don't buy into his idea that great music has have a "logical" basis. Mr. Williams never "got" John Coltrane: "I was, and am, repeatedly disengaged. After three or four minutes my attention wanders, and giving the records try after try does not seem to help." All I can say to that is that if you try to listen to Coltrane on a purely logical level, and leave out an emotional level, you're in trouble. At least Martin Williams was honest enough to admit his failure to connect with Coltrane's music but, if that was the case, why bother to write about it? That's the side of Martin Williams' writing that led me to leave it behind. To cop a title from an old Bob Newhart record, I felt as if I were reading The Button Down Mind of Martin Williams. There were a few other disagreements I had with Mr. Williams during my rereading. At one point in his essay on Duke Ellington, he writes that "One problem in Ellington's later career was that he sometimes ceased to work quite as closely with the specific talents of his players." I don't find that at all true, and I offer recordings such as Such Sweet Thunder, Blues in Orbit, The Queen's Suite, Far East Suite, and ...and his mother called him Bill, to name a few examples. He also states at one point that "(Ornette) Coleman has not, as I write, found his Tony Williams." All I can say in reply to that is to ask who were Billy Higgins, Edward Blackwell, and Charles Moffett? And, I might add, Philly Joe Jones was Miles Davis' Tony Williams before Tony Williams came along. And I can't agree with Mr. Williams' opinion of John Lewis' music, though he was persuasive enough that I am going to give some listening time to the Modern Jazz Quartet and to John Lewis' solo music.
All of this said, I'm very happy that I did reread The Jazz Tradition. There are are wonderfully thoughtful essays on King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and, most importantly for me, an essay on Jelly Roll Morton's music that will bear rereading many times. And, for me, there will also be much listening to follow up on the reading.
I read a library copy of the book before writing this review, but I plan to buy a copy of my own.
I'll end by quoting Martin Williams on Billie Holiday: "She was an actress. And she was a great musician. But she never had an act."...more
The cover - a painting by the author, perhaps indebted in some ways to Chagall, but with aspects that catch my eyeThings that I like about this book:
The cover - a painting by the author, perhaps indebted in some ways to Chagall, but with aspects that catch my eyes and capture my attention. I like the use of colors, the sense of magic that it evokes, the contrast of the two heads, and the three candles in the lower right corner which create a sense of light, spirituality, and hope.
The snippet from a short play by Wallace Stevens which serves as an epigraph: "Let the candle shine for the beauty of shining." (I had to look up those words. I'm not a Wallace Stevens scholar.)
A friend had recently emailed me that he'd started reading Henry Threadgill's memoir, Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music. The next day, I picked up this book at the library, took it home, and opened it. The title story is dedicated to Henry Threadgill.
There's much talk and discussion of art, artists, and writing in this collection. I loved that aspect of it.
Many of these stories are imbued with a peaceful sadness or, perhaps, a sad peacefulness. I don't know if there's a difference between the two, but there may be for me.
Not all of these stories are perfect, whatever "perfect" may mean but, when I read them, I had the sense of an author who was attempting to write in ways that were out of the ordinary. As a reader, I appreciated that. Not all of the stories connected with me, but I'll remember the ones that did make a connection.
"Every other Sunday, Delacroix put aside his work, spruced up, and went to the Gare Montparnasse to meet the woman he loved. The little train from Auvers-sur-Oise always deposited her on time, and he was always there waiting for her on time. 'Your regularity amazes me. If I didn't know you were such a great artist, I would have taken you for an accountant or a bureaucrat.' 'I take this as a great compliment,' he said. 'I had always wanted to be a lawyer and arrange wills and divorces, but my parents forced me to become an artist.'"...more
A town in Wales at the end of a bleak winter; everyone knows too much about everyone else; a minister who is obsessed by his thoughts of a mysterious A town in Wales at the end of a bleak winter; everyone knows too much about everyone else; a minister who is obsessed by his thoughts of a mysterious woman; a middle aged alcoholic woman and a middle aged alcoholic man brought together and held together by a failing rooming house/hotel. It all plays out under the masterful pen of James Hanley....more
I met Dan Hicks in passing in 1998. He was playing a small club in rural New York and I approached him after the show to ask if he'd sign some album cI met Dan Hicks in passing in 1998. He was playing a small club in rural New York and I approached him after the show to ask if he'd sign some album covers - something I no longer do these days because I don't want to ask people to waste their valuable time signing things. I remember being somewhat intimidated - partly because in my world, Dan Hicks was a big deal and also because I knew he had a reputation for sarcasm. My qualms proved to be unwarranted, because he came across as a straight up guy who put me at ease and signed the LP covers. I recall that he told me about an upcoming issue of very early recordings that Big Beat was releasing. That turned out to be Early Muses, which I (naturally) ended up buying when it came out later that year.
Okay - enough about me. This is supposed to be about the book. I Scare Myself is an obvious labor of love, printed on high quality paper and with rare photos from Dan Hicks' life and career. Mr. Hicks wrote most of it, slowing down when he was undergoing treatments for cancer - I could tell exactly when that happened. He died before he could complete the writing and the last chapter of the book was written by his editor. I'm sure she did the best she could, but she didn't have the stories, anecdotes, and attitude that Mr. Hicks would have brought to it.
Dan Hicks devoted a chapter to his alcoholism, which is tough reading for anyone who's had experience with an alcoholic. To his credit, he got straight. He was obviously sober when I met him. He wrote something toward the end of that chapter which rang true to me: "So yeah, I got sober, and I made my feeble attempts at making amends, but maybe the real deep things I don't have words for. There may still be a few things I haven't done, but I do it a lot day-to-day and don't like to keep things not right. If something happens, I get back to people. I talk to them about it. You got to."
I don't want to give the impression that the book is mainly about alcoholism and recovery. There are many pages with stories about Dan Hicks' early life, his friends, his time with the Charlatans (an early SF band in which he was a drummer and later singer and guitarist), the formation(s) of the Hot Licks, and, as I said before, many great photographs. If you're a fan, you'll probably want to read this book.
I just realized that if I asked a hundred people at random who Dan Hicks was, at least ninety nine would have no idea. I can imagine someone guessing that Dan Hicks was a southern U.S. sheriff or someone guessing that he was a midwestern U.S. politician. If you're one of those ninety nine, but have a curiosity about Dan Hicks, here ya go:
Hope you enjoy and will excuse the crappy YouTube sound....more
Windshield wipers slapping back and forth, Murph's Celebrity Sedan hugged the curve as it sped onto the Edison Bridge, Super 88 4 barrel High CompressioWindshield wipers slapping back and forth, Murph's Celebrity Sedan hugged the curve as it sped onto the Edison Bridge, Super 88 4 barrel High Compression 394 Rocket V8, Roto Hydro-Matic transmission, power steering, Pedal-Ease power brakes, the rolling black cylinder speedometer flashing green, yellow, and red, holding steady at 65 mph, midnight blue frame encasing me in terror, where I remain still, sleeping or awake when I conjure that ride across the old deck plate and girder bridge with its big hump in the middle, all 29 spans, the muddy Raritan 135 feet below. Murph's foot to the floor as he wove through the pack, growling imprecations, outraged by the pace of the rest of the world, frantic to get nowhere in particular except in the early a.m. on the G.W. Bridge dropping me off at the IRT on 168th then heading downtown to his taxi place.
from "Murph & Me"
Those French boys in the engine room aren't giving him much, but he doesn't need much, does Carlos Wesley Byas of Muskogee, Oklahoma, elbows on the bar of the Beaulieu, circa '47 - I was born under the sign of music, he tells whoever's listening. That feathery tone of his by way of Hawk but something else entirely, running through this set of ballads: "Laura," "Where or When," "Flamingo," unmistakable, no one played ballads like him.
from "A History of Western Music: Chapter 42 (Caspian Lake, Vermont)
Both of these poems take a ride to other places. These are just excerpts. If what you've read above speaks to you, buy the book. If it doesn't, find another book of poetry that does speak to you and buy it. There's plenty of poetry out there, past and present....more
This is a beautifully crafted collection and Mr. MacLaverty (interesting that in the edition I read, he's referred to as Bernard Mac Laverty - perhapsThis is a beautifully crafted collection and Mr. MacLaverty (interesting that in the edition I read, he's referred to as Bernard Mac Laverty - perhaps the spelling changed over the years) writes about his characters - most of them, anyway - with loving care. My favorites: "A Time to Dance", "My Dear Palestrina" (Mr. MacLaverty obviously has a long time love of music), "Life Drawing", "Phonefun Limited", "The Beginnings of a Sin", and "Language, Truth and Lockjaw"....more
The downs can be off-putting, especially when the narrator relates spending days, weeks, and months in a drunken state, continA very up and down book.
The downs can be off-putting, especially when the narrator relates spending days, weeks, and months in a drunken state, continually watching videos of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, and ranting and waxing philosophically about the films.
I’m probably no one to cast aspersions. I recently spent a good part of an afternoon listening to and comparing the issued and unissued takes of the studio recordings of Eric Dolphy’s �245� and “G.W.�, and the more common takes and rarer takes of Ellington’s “Tishomingo Blues� and King Oliver’s “Olga�. I’m sure there are folks who would call me crazy, and I won’t disagree. My only defense is that I only spent part of an afternoon with my craziness, wasn’t drunk, and am only writing this paragraph, not pages and pages and pages on my activity.
The ups in the novel come when the narrator leaves his apartment and has some interaction with others. He leaves Paris for a day, flies to New York, and meets with the film director Michael Cimino (his idol) to show Cimino his 700 page screenplay on the life of Herman Melvile. He has a drunken dinner party at an exclusive Parisian restaurant (the maître ‘d looks like Emmanuel Macron) with a film producer, the actress Isabelle Huppert, a beautiful museum director, with a Dalmatian named Sabbat lying under the table. He and a student rescue a young refugee couple from the police while driving around Paris looking for the Dalmatian, who's been lost. There are other adventures which occur outside his apartment. He’d have done well to have left it more often.
A couple of asides: At one point in the novel, it’s mentioned that Michael Cimino wrote a novel which was translated from English into French and was published in France. He didn't want it to be published in America. That novel does exist:
And in the course of reading Hold Fast Your Crown, I came across a chapter entitled CHARLES REZNIKOFF. (I won’t mention more than that. Anyone who has an interest can read the novel and discover the context.) Charles Reznikoff is one of my favorite writers and someone whose writings are generally and unjustly ignored. I’m going to ramble a bit here (even more than I have already). About 15 years ago, my wife and I went to the bar mitzvah of the son of a very good friend. At the reception, my friend introduced me to one of the guests, a fairly well known literary person (essayist, novelist, editor, etc.) who mentioned that he hoped to edit a collection of Charles Reznikoff’s writings for the Library of America. That was 15 years ago, and it hasn’t happened yet It’s ironic that Yannick Haenel, a French novelist, pays more attention to Charles Reznikoff than the Library of America has. I have to give Mr, Haenel some skin for that.
All of us have our own eccentric likes. (I call them weirdnesses, though that doesn’t seem to be an accepted word.) This novel is one of mine....more
Although it's marked "read", this is a reference work, more than one to read. The reading part will come when I get around to reading some of the bookAlthough it's marked "read", this is a reference work, more than one to read. The reading part will come when I get around to reading some of the books listed - many of which I've never heard of, but the descriptions of which sound fascinating. Thanks for Mr. Paul Bryant for bringing this book to my attention. /review/show...
July, 27, 2021: Browsing through this today and wondering if a book that I just began reading was included - it wasn't, but that's ok; a book like this one can't include everything - I realized that, while there are indices of authors and book titles included in the volume, there is no index of translators. That seems strange, considering that it's a book about novels in translation....more
P. 32 "Louise, you're a kick", Claude said. I don't know why. "Come on, you want to go hear the Ink Spots? They're singing out on Airline Highway at P. 32 "Louise, you're a kick", Claude said. I don't know why. "Come on, you want to go hear the Ink Spots? They're singing out on Airline Highway at the High-Lite Inn. It's on the way to Des Allemands. Want to?" "The Ink Spots?" "Yes, it's on the way." "Oh, the Ink Spots. Aren't they kind of old?" "Yes, they're kind of old. They're kind of old now, you're exactly right, but they still sing. They're singing out on Airline Highway. Want to go?" "I love the Ink Spots," I said. "Or maybe we should just sit around talking about the Ink Spots. That's what you'd probably rather do, knowing you," Claude said.
p. 33 On the corner of Indulgence and Religion, in the Lower Garden District, there is a violently pretty spot. It was Claude's parents' house.
p, 45 Emile LaSalle. � He was full of stories about the famous. He told me he once sat in an opera box next to Mussolini during the war and that Mussolini had tried to marry his sister. Then he told me that Nathaniel Hawthorne once walked into a restaurant when Mr. LaSalle was a very small child, and Nathaniel Hawthorne went straight up to his sister and patted her on the head and said she was cute. "You've got quite a sister, haven't you?" I said. "Aw yeah. I been hobnobbing in my time."
p. 72 Claude had beckoned the undertaker into the kitchen, saying he wanted to "talk shop." Then he asked the undertaker what kind of funeral he would like to have himself, after seeing so many other people's funerals, and what kind of burial he would like to have. The glamorous undertaker said, "I would like to be exploded." "You mean exploded, like with dynamite, at the funeral?" said Claude. "Yes." This was Claude's kind of person.
p. 127 Mr. Collier sat in his study and fingered a ring which his wife had not worn for many years. He gave it to her when they married. She returned it to him one day in the late fall of 1950, and they did not reconcile until Saint was conceived. The ring was a thin gold band carved with vines. On the inside it was inscribed I cling to thee.
On page 140, Nancy Lemann mentions a gospel group called the Zion Harmonizers. There is an actual gospel group called the Zion Harmonizers. They were founded in the late 1930's and are still active today, obviously with different members. I have an album with one of their recordings from the mid 1950's, so I found the mention interesting and cool.
Lives of the Saints is filled with anecdotes that charmed me, even if the narrative didn't go much of anywhere. Perhaps that's just New Orleans....more
This is the first J.P. Donleavy fiction that I've read since The Ginger Man - read when I was in college many years ago. It was good to see (read) thaThis is the first J.P. Donleavy fiction that I've read since The Ginger Man - read when I was in college many years ago. It was good to see (read) that Mr. Donleavy hadn't lost his sense of grace and style. Jocelyn Guenevere Marchantiere Jones moves toward madness and does some foolish things during the course of this novella, but she is never a fool. I liked that and her. I also liked Elliott Banfield's accompanying drawings, and Mr. Donleavy's dedication: To Maria Theresa Von Stockert Sayle Who Wore Her White Gloves In The Garden. I have no idea whether the dedication is real or a put on. I hope that it's real, but it works for me either way....more
There's a story entitled "Cecil Taylor" in this collection. I don't have heroes these days but, if I did, Cecil Taylor would surely be near the top ofThere's a story entitled "Cecil Taylor" in this collection. I don't have heroes these days but, if I did, Cecil Taylor would surely be near the top of the list. So it was a certainty that I was going to pick up this book. The "Cecil Taylor" story is a very good one. I don't know how much of the story is based in fact and how much is myth. Over time, fact and myth can merge and become one. I'm just happy that the story is real. There are at least two other stories in The Music Brain : and Other Stories that I know will remain with me over time: "The Dog", a haunting, searing tale of guilt, conscience, and memory; and "Poverty": "Maybe that's why you resent me, but it's the source of all your originality, and given your maladaptation, without originality, you're nothing." I've never been truly poor and I hope that I never will be, but Poverty's argument seemed to be a convincing one for the narrator of the story, though there may well be some twisted irony involved there. Some of the other stories in this collection turn in on themselves in ways that didn't grab me, and made for sluggish reading, but I'll remember the three stories mentioned above and that's enough for me....more
While reading these confessions - and they are truly confessions - I realized that R.B. Kitaj had four obsessions in his life: Being a Jew and being aWhile reading these confessions - and they are truly confessions - I realized that R.B. Kitaj had four obsessions in his life: Being a Jew and being a Jewish Painter - He struggled with and worked at that throughout his lifetime. Womanizing - He was an inveterate womanizer until his marriage to his second wife, Sandra Fisher, in 1983, when he was 51. Critics and reviewers - His good friend, David Hockney, writes in his introduction to this book: "He was affected by criticism more than I, a lot more. � You should ignore them. Most artists do. But that was his way, and I accepted it. He was my dear old friend and I accepted what he was like." His obsession with reviewers reached a peak with the retrospective of his works at the Tate Gallery in 1994. The exhibition was a popular success, but many critics and reviewers attacked it rather viciously. The main complaint seemed to be that Kitaj added commentaries which were hung next to some of the paintings and were printed in the catalogue. (I didn't see the exhibition, and wasn't aware of the critical comments back in 1994, but my own reaction now is that if the critics were offended by Kitaj's commentaries, they could have ignored them and just looked at the pictures. That is their job, after all. I guess critics feel that painters shouldn't be literate enough to read and write. Beyond that, anyone who could create works such as Books and Ex-Patriot, The Street (A Life), His Hour, The Jew, etc., Degas, The Room, and Kafka, to name just a handful of my favorites included in this book, didn't deserve to be pilloried by a handful of critics. If it had been up to me, I would have taken away their press credentials and made them work as night cleaners in museums. Perhaps that might have taught them something about art. End of rant.) Kitaj's fourth obsession was drawing and painting. That obsession lasted throughout his lifetime - a blessing for him and for those of us who value his works.
The book itself is handsome - tightly bound, printed on thick expensive paper, with a multitude of images of Kitaj's works (small, but clearly printed) and numerous photographs, many by Kitaj's friend Lee Friedlander.
I'm certainly not a critic, and I'm not much of a reviewer, but if I had to make one comment about this book, it would be - not perfect, but honest....more
When I was a college student, I took an art history class. Before the first class began, I was excited about it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a When I was a college student, I took an art history class. Before the first class began, I was excited about it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bust - at least for me. The way it was set up was, memorize certain artists and dates, and recognize certain works and know what you're supposed to see in them. Anything else you might see was a no go. I was turned off by that format. It seemed like a memorization game, and a game I had no interest in playing. Over he years, I've tended to find my own way in the world of art (and in music and literature). The downside of that is that there are large gaps (historical and otherwise) in my knowledge of art, which I regret. Usually, though, when there's a downside, there's also an upside. The upside here is that I've discovered worlds of pleasure and enjoyment that I might never have experienced if I had pursued art in a more academic way.
Which brings me to Tom Lubbock's book, Great Works. The format of the book is that fifty paintings are displayed, with an accompanying two page text by Mr. Lubbock after each work. (I should mention that the texts are taken from newspaper columns that Mr. Lubbock wrote over a period of years. I should also mention that the newspaper, the Independent is (or was when Mr. Lubbock's columns were written) unlike any newspaper I know in the U.S. I don't know of any U.S. newspaper that would publish anything like Tom Lubbock's columns.) Mr. Lubbock makes connections that I would never think of - connecting a still life by Juan Sanchez-Cotan with a great story about Tallulah Bankhead; pointing out the way in which Pietro Longhi makes use (or non-use, in this case) of perspective to create social and emotional effects in a painting; commenting that Hopper's Early Sunday Morning "is a view without a viewer" - I can't imagine a more telling comment.
If by some miracle, Tom Lubbock had taught that art history class I took (he'd have been too young to have done so), or if his book had been used as a text (it hadn't been written yet), my path through the worlds of art might have been a very different one. The good news for me is that Great Works has helped to teach me to see paintings in very different ways than I had done so before. For that reason alone, Great Works has a place of honor on my bookshelves.
I have to give a tip of the cap and many thanks to my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friend Tony, whose review tipped me off to Great Works and led me to buy a copy. Here's his review: /review/show......more
A collection of poems by my favorite contemporary poet. Here are two:
WHERE GALLUCCIO LIVED
Get all of it boys, every brick, so the next storm blows outA collection of poems by my favorite contemporary poet. Here are two:
WHERE GALLUCCIO LIVED
Get all of it boys, every brick, so the next storm blows out any ghost left with the dust.
In that closet of air the river wind gnaws at was where the crucifix hung; and over there
by the radio and nails, that's where Galluccio kept with his busted leg in an old soft chair
watching TV and the cars go past.
Whole floors, broken up and carted off �
Memory stinks, like good marinara sauce. You never get that garlic Smell off the walls.
A HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC: CHAPTER 29
In Memoriam Thom Gunn (After Johnny Mercer)
I took a trip on a plane And I thought about you I lunched alone in the rain And I thought about you
One streetcar, then two, disappearing from view A tortured dream The fog blowing in, canceling all that had been Going street by street Like a cop on his beat
Over the Great Salt Lake Yeah, I thought about you But when I pulled down the shade Man, I really got blue
I snuck a peek at the clouds Muttered something aloud Something I once said to you
The Journalists seems to have had a rough go of it. The play was written after Mr. Wesker spent some time at the offices of the Sunday Times. It was cThe Journalists seems to have had a rough go of it. The play was written after Mr. Wesker spent some time at the offices of the Sunday Times. It was completed in 1971 and a contract was signed with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the play to be performed in late 1972. Roles were offered to actors in the company and most of them refused to perform the play, so the company abandoned the project. Wesker also wrote an article about his time spent at the Sunday Times researching the play. Publication of that was delayed for a number of years because of objections from several of the journalists whom he quoted. The Journalists: A Triptych is comprised of the play, Wesker's journal of the time he spent researching it, and the article about his time spent at theSunday Times. I found all three parts fascinating and am puzzled as to why the actors at the Royal Shakespeare Company refused to perform the play. This interview with Wesker suggests that the refusal to perform it was politically motivated:
Anyway, for whatever my opinion is worth, I recommend reading the play and the other parts of the book....more
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