Hollywood and Wine
John O'Hara's Hollywood, Edited and with an Introduction by Matthew J. Bruccoli, New YorK; Carroll & Graf, 2007. $17.95. Paper
THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY celebrates the life and works of John O'Hara, Pennsylvania's pre-eminent contemporary author and America's greatest short-story writer. The JOHS studies, publishes, and diffuses works by and about the author. Membership is free. For details, contact the JOHS's Corresponding Secretary, Richard Carreño, via Philabooks@yahoo.com. © MMXXVI John O'Hara Society.
O'Hara Among Tom Wolfe's Picks
Top Ten Books Ever
Member Susan Goss, of Philadelphia, reports that author Tom Wolfe lists Appointment in Samara and Butterfield 8 as two of his top 10 picks as best novels ever. This, according to the Sunday edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer of 15 February 2007. Thanks Susan!
Member Susan Goss, of Philadelphia, reports that author Tom Wolfe lists Appointment in Samara and Butterfield 8 as two of his top 10 picks as best novels ever. This, according to the Sunday edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer of 15 February 2007. Thanks Susan!
Time weighs in, on 14 May, with Wolfe's five "most important books" cited by Wolfe. Appointment, says Wolfe, "gave me the idea for how to write The Bonfire of the Vanities."
O'Hara Gets no Respect
Or, Bloom's New Book
Gets it Bloomin' Wrong
JOH is the Rodney Dangerfield of American literature. You remember Rodney, the comedian who couldn't get any 'respect'?
So it goes to O'Hara -- again and again.
Most recently, lack of O'Hara recognition cropped up in the just-published Bloom's Literary Guide to New York, an interesting review of New York writers, published by Checkmark Books and overseen editorially by Harold Bloom, the controversial Yale professor.
It seems that Bloom (he of many faults) has another -- myopia. Unless I'm suffering from the very same disease (please, let me know!), I wasn't able to find any reference to O'Hara in the 222-page text. No mention of the author of such quintissential New York oeuvres as Butterfield 8, Pal Joey, and others in the canon! No mention of an author who roamed New York and its journalistic and literary corridors (hello, The New Yorker) like no other.
Bloom apparently suffers from another killer disease -- Alfred-Kazin-ism. Like Kazin, Bloom is a member of an insufferable post-WAr II (my God, these guys still alive!) New York clavel of anti-O'Hara-ites who never forgave O'Hara not championing -- or katowing to -- their histography of Jewish New York.
You know the rest.
-- Richard Carreño
Gets it Bloomin' Wrong
JOH is the Rodney Dangerfield of American literature. You remember Rodney, the comedian who couldn't get any 'respect'?
So it goes to O'Hara -- again and again.
Most recently, lack of O'Hara recognition cropped up in the just-published Bloom's Literary Guide to New York, an interesting review of New York writers, published by Checkmark Books and overseen editorially by Harold Bloom, the controversial Yale professor.
It seems that Bloom (he of many faults) has another -- myopia. Unless I'm suffering from the very same disease (please, let me know!), I wasn't able to find any reference to O'Hara in the 222-page text. No mention of the author of such quintissential New York oeuvres as Butterfield 8, Pal Joey, and others in the canon! No mention of an author who roamed New York and its journalistic and literary corridors (hello, The New Yorker) like no other.
Bloom apparently suffers from another killer disease -- Alfred-Kazin-ism. Like Kazin, Bloom is a member of an insufferable post-WAr II (my God, these guys still alive!) New York clavel of anti-O'Hara-ites who never forgave O'Hara not championing -- or katowing to -- their histography of Jewish New York.
You know the rest.
-- Richard Carreño
AGM
Wait 'Til Next Year
Philadelphia: --
The first AGM was, well, a mixed bag.
Attendance was minimal -- me, and two others. Actually, four, if you include Dan, the P&P's barman, who a recruited as a member that same evening.
Never mind.
Given the stormy weather, and I-78 (from Pottsville) logjammed, I suppose any attendance amounted to a good showing. Actually, there was a important plus. I received numerous notes and comments from members and would-be members. Let's try to keep the dialog going.
---RDC
Philadelphia: --
The first AGM was, well, a mixed bag.
Attendance was minimal -- me, and two others. Actually, four, if you include Dan, the P&P's barman, who a recruited as a member that same evening.
Never mind.
Given the stormy weather, and I-78 (from Pottsville) logjammed, I suppose any attendance amounted to a good showing. Actually, there was a important plus. I received numerous notes and comments from members and would-be members. Let's try to keep the dialog going.
---RDC
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