The result is 668 pages of an interesting tale that focuses squarely on Una Spencer. The narrative traces the young woman's childhood in Kentucky and her adolescence in Nantucket. Author Naslund has composed her book in a style that emulates Melville's, with long scenes bearing a quiet dignity.
Despite some interesting developments and the occasional appearance of the enigmatic Captain Ahab, Ahab's Wife demands reading, but disappoints at the end, because it doesn't seem to have a reason for having been written, other than as a lightweight piece of entertainment. It does, however, have a wonderful opening line: "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband or nor my last."
Abe on Abe
What's this? A Lincoln autobiography? Paul M. Zall, a researcher at the Huntington Library , had the idea of constructing such a work from Lincoln's letters, speeches and interviews. The result, Lincoln on Lincoln (University Press of Kentucky, $25) is a fascinating book that fully deserves a place in the huge library of Lincoln history.
As Zall points out in his introduction, Lincoln's personality remains a mystery. Zall used two biographies that Lincoln wrote for the 1860 presidential campaign as a matrix. Then he wove in extracts from letters, speeches, interviews, and other reports "to provide a tapestry of his life in his own words."
Good idea, carried out well.
Advent of Film Sound
The change in Hollywood from silent films to talkies was one of the monumental transitions in movie history. Anyone with an interest in Hollywood history will delight in The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930 (University Press of Kentucky, $18.95 paperback).
This is a fascinating trip back to the land of movie magic. Author Scott Eyman has done a magnificent service to film history with this thorough, chatty, and important book. In its hardcover publication, the book won raves from a wide variety of critics.
Farmer's Wife Keeps Diary
Dale B.J. Randall's maternal grandmother kept a diary from the last three years of 1917 through all of 1918. Using that as a basis, Randall has put together Soliloquy of a Farmer's Wife: The Diary of Annie Elliott Perrin (Ohio University Press).
The result is a leisurely account, fully fleshed out with additional commentary, facts, and photographs. It provides a unique account of what life was like on a farm in northern Ohio in the early part of the twentieth century. Randall has the relatively brief account left by his grandmother and produced a sterling document that should be helpful to other historians and interesting for the general public.
Go To Page: 1 2
