On September 29, 1930, Evelyn Waugh, the author of Vile Bodies and other ultra-post-modern works, entered the Catholic Church. Three weeks later, the Daily Express published an essay by the convert entitled “Converted to Rome: Why It Has Happened.” In that essay, Waugh explained his choice to submit to ultra-orthodoxy in an age which desperately…
Month: November 2016
Happy Times in Noisy Village
In another post, I commented that my first exposure to Astrid Lindgren was through Pippi Longstocking and I wasn’t terribly impressed. Along the way, however, I was persuaded to try some of her other work. I read Children of Noisy Village and fell in love. In my review of that book, I note a Santa…
Old Sam Dakota Trotter
“It was this way with many things, for there was no sure guide to go by. It was the beginning of experience. Of course no two settlers were working under the same conditions, and their methods differed… as they learned to overcome their own difficulties in their own way, uncertainty gave way to a good…
Orange Childcraft Illustration
We have been doing a lot of research on and writing about the various printings of the Childcraft Books. We have a Childcraft landing page with links to the various articles and reviews that we have written about findings. As many families have sought to acquire their own sets, they have desired to better understand some key…
My Book House: 1920’s Illustration
Book club friends and readers of this blog often ask about the illustration and format of the older My Book House set. Over the next year we hope to write a series of posts on all of the major printings of the My Book House books and compare them to the Childcraft Books. In the…
Mrs. Mike
When trying to decide how to describe Mrs. Mike, I thought that the word poignant was accurate and helpful.
Right Ho, Jeeves
“The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh is tasteless, irreverent, perverse, and merciless. These qualities, however, are the source of a strange sanity because they are the means by which we can all have a good laugh. Not only is it quite alright to take things lightly, it is a good habit… We are refreshed more…