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unearths some literary gems.
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unearths some literary gems.
The Pinkled Frinft, and other snippets from The Smart Set, 1917:
***[Shaw's play Getting Married] reminds one of a Wilde epigram rewritten by Dostoievsky. [Nathan]***Anyone can write a play but...it takes genius to sit through one. [Nathan; not sure if this quip is original to him]***all its winsome et ceteras [Nathan]***Miss Cather and Mrs. Watts have yet to strike twelve. [Mencken]***ideas rolled out like noodles [Mencken]***the grave and literal-minded critical whisker [Nathan]***Bonuses:Nathan uses "jabberwock" as a transitive verb (something a playwright does to the audience by entertaining them with playful nonsense).He also uses the adverb "Johnsonianly" (i.e., in the manner of Dr. Johnson).[And the same day I encountered that, I subsequently encountered the assertion, in an unrelated book from 1921, that Fanny Burney wrote "a kind of debased Johnsonese."]He describes a play called /The Basker/ as a "monocled dawdle"Notes on a couple of the attachments:1. Re. "more this anon": This sentence, article, and entire *issue* appear to break off in the middle of a word! Mencken is both the author and co-editor, so in a way he's self-empting. (And I note that I saw no evidence of the sentence or article picking up again in the subsequent issue.)2. I've included the tobacco ad simply because of its over-the-top off-topicness in confusing itself with a coffee ad. (I subsequently saw another one in the series, with some other fragrant non-tobacco substance featured.)
3. Apparently The Pinkled Frinft's title has a subtitle that reads, "Don't Wrinkle Your Nose When You Pronounce It."
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unearths some literary gems.
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unearths some literary gems.
From Secretary of Frivolous Affairs, by May Futrelle:
[Btw, this author also wrote a book called Lieutenant What's-His-Name.]
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She had never had as close as a fourth cousin connection with a romance.
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It was a problem that had the Servant Question tied in a double knot.
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"I know my A-B-abs of golf."
[What's with this upper/lower, C-unaware version of the ABCs?? Googling this, of course, is hopeless.]
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"I do hope she doesn't want me for a sort of sublimated lady's maid."
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to find out Who's Who in Society and Why
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She had gone to a lecture, anyhow, on the Whereness of the Which, or something equally intellectual.
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A breakfast gong at eight, and mother at the head of the table pouring coffee. It's her hobby.
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I whirled in the scheme of things, marveling every instant that I didn't fly off into the air from tangential impetus.
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"You win!" Hap exclaimed, and he tossed her an olive.
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It was a dark green cloth bag like lawyers carry their--whatever they do carry in them.
***
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unearths some literary gems.
From The Man Who Came to Dinner, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart:
[The character is reading from a phone bill.]
STANLEY: Oklahoma City, Calcutta, Hollywood, Australia, Rome, New York, New York, New York, New York, New York, New York--(His voice trails off in an endless succession of New Yorks)
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unearths some literary gems.
From Ring for Nancy: A Sheer Comedy*, by Ford Madox Hueffer**
[*aka The Panel: A Sheer Comedy][**aka Ford Madox Ford][This is a strange book. At its best moments, it's not unlike the Lucia/Mapp novels, but much of it is rather a sordid, and at times tedious, soap opera. The best scene (see link below) I recommend in full; and, speaking as a writer, I suspect that scene might have originated as a freestanding story or humor piece that got wedged in here.]***"Oh, my aunt!" [...] "Oh, my uncle!"[It turns out these oaths are at least partially allusive to an actual aunt and uncle.]***"No, I was born in Peckham," the manager answered,--"silly Peckham."[I'm not sure why Peckham is or was silly, but I'll take it. Fwiw, Wikipedia does note that "the late 19th century also saw the arrival of George Batty, a manufacturer of condiments."]***[Okay, now for the "big scene," which follows up a railway-station incident early in the book and relates to the attached Henry James business (thus raising a chicken-and-egg question regarding the inclusion of that, as well as this, in the book to begin with). The link should take you to Part III, chap. IV:]https://archive.org/details/ringfornancyshee00fordrich/page/278/mode/1up?view=theater[Many snippets attached. Note: While I wouldn't put it past the showbiz folks, then or now, to turn the short story "Pigs Is Pigs" into a full-blown musical comedy, I find no evidence that this actually happened--so Ford is pulling our leg with that, and the songs can be filed under Nonexistent Songs from Nonexistent Musicals Based on Actual Literature.]
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