While Rome Burns
While Rome Burns is a book collecting some of the 20th century American critic Alexander Woollcott's writings for the New Yorker[1] and other magazines. The title is a reference to the popular legend that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. The book was published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934. Vincent Starrett hailed it as one of the 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century".[2] Woollcott promoted the book on his radio show and his pointed critiques, quips, and asides gained enough of an audience to make it a bestseller.[2] The New York Times reviewed it.[3] The book includes accounts of his travels to Japan and Russia.[4]
A sequel, Long, Long Ago, was published after Woollcott's death in 1943.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ "WHILE ROME BURNS by Alexander Woollcott" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
- ^ a b Wallace, David. "The Round Table". Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7627-7010-6.
- ^ Poore, C. g (4 March 1934). "Mr. Woollcott Runs On and On;" – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ "Asia and the Americas". 24 December 2018 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Vincent Starrett and the 1934 Baker Street Irregulars Dinner". Studies in Starrett.