Many writers profited from Maxwell Perkins's ministrations. Most famously, the saintly editor hacked almost 300 pages out of Look Homeward, Angel, reducing Thomas Wolfe's debut to a (relatively) readable form. F. Scott Fitzgerald's work required much less in the way of major surgery. Yet as these letters reveal, the novelist and his editor had a highly productive correspondence, allowing Fitzgerald to bounce big-picture ideas off Perkins and exchange reams of literary gossip. Fitzgerald tends toward the earnest and apologetic: "If I ever win the right to any liesure [sic] again I will assuredly not waste it as I wasted this past time. Please believe me when I say that now I'm doing the best I can." And Perkins tends toward the downright prescient: "At any rate, one thing I think, we can be sure of: that when the tumult and shouting of the rabble of reviewers and gossipers dies, 'The Great Gatsby' will stand out as a very extraordinary book."

Dear Scott, dear Max: The Fitzgerald-Perkins correspondence;

Literature & Fiction

Kuehl, John and Bryer, Jackson (Editors)

United States

Cassell & Company

That cold morning in July 1943 still haunted 633 Squadron, for only a single Mosquito made it back from the suicidal but successful Operation Vesuvius. Now, barely a year later, the Germans were once more processing the secret 'element' known as IMI and were about to move their stocks to the safety of Germany. If successful, the whole tide of the war would be turned. Once again, it meant another mission impossible for 633 Squadron...

633 Squadron: Operation Valkyrie

SMITH, FREDERICK E. (First Edition in jacket)

Genre Fiction

The three volumes of studies of Verdi's operas by Julian Budden are rightly classics of the genre. This is owing to their scope of information on the genesis, circumstances, variants, and specifics of the operas themselves--certainly the fullest description these works have ever been given--as well as to the wealth of surrounding information about the composer, his life, his friends, and his times. It is a measure of the excellence of Budden's achievement that this cornucopia of information is surveyed in very readable prose--readers get a picture of each work within its context. Budden's knowledge of 19th-century opera--both in Italy and in France--is wide-ranging, and he is able to place Verdi and his works in comparison with those of Donizetti, Pacini, Mercadante, and Meyerbeer. He discusses how the great operatic genius emerged from the background of early-19th-century opera and how Verdi's own early, uneven works blossomed into the glory of his later ones. Budden, thankfully, is not a hagiographer, and he recognizes Verdi's faults as well as his strengths, but few--if any--writers have managed to demonstrate how Verdi both blended in with his musical surroundings and stood out from them. These studies, with all their richness, are a good source of information about a host of lesser composers of the time. Budden includes many musical examples to highlight his writing in this, a work of scholarship of the highest order. --Patrick J. Smith

The Operas of Verdi (Volume 2) From Il Trovatore to La Forza del destino

Arts & Photography

BUDDEN, Julian

Music

A well-written and comprehensive history of the Congress of Vienna and its historical importance in maintaining relative peace in Europe for decades.

Congress of Vienna

NICOLSON, Harold

The Tudors (A Royal History of England)

This volume provides the essential history of the Tudors up to the death of Elizabeth I, who kept power with a rare skill and subtlety, and whose death led to the union of the crowns of England and Scotland and the end of the Tudor line.About the series A Royal History of England:From the beginning of monarchical power in Norman times to the present queen, the British royal family has experienced many scandals, triumphs, and changes in public image, but few of their reigns can be described as uneventful. With contributions by specialist authors and contemporary illustrations of royal heraldry and coats of arms, Antonia Fraser has edited a definitive and entertaining history of one of the most powerful monarchies in the world.

THE TUDORS (A Royal History Of England)

History

Williams, Neville and Antonia Fraser, editors

Europe

Beken of Cowes: 1897-1914 v. 1

Chamier, John - Photographs By Frank & Keith Beken

An explosion of limericks

Humor & Entertainment

HOLLAND, Vyvyan

Humor

Richer Than All His Tribe

MONSARRAT, NICHOLAS

Churchill's place in history rests on his accomplishments during WW II. Without his courage, eloquence and leadership, England might have negotiated a peace that would have left Europe under Hitler's domain. 
But Churchill was more than a man of action, he was also a writer of rare distinction. He earned his living by his pen, or as he put it, he lived from mouth to hand. 
HEROES OF HISTORY is a collection of short biographical sketches taken from Churchill's four-volume work THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES. The author believed people shaped events, indeed his own life proved it, so his interpretations of William the Conqueror, Joan of Arc, George Washington, Queen Victoria and others are strong and sure. An experience indeed!

Heroes of History

CHURCHILL, Winston

Ferries and ferrymen

Wood, G. Bernard

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