Comments on: 30’s movies marathon – part 9

By: Bjørn Stærk

Bjørn Stærk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:46:08 +0000

"how many of the people reading your blog have heard of the Algonquin group"I'm not sure I have any readers these days. At least they make little noise. Obscure books and movies are apparently not good conversation starters.

By: Bjørn Stærk

Bjørn Stærk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:37:31 +0000

I’ve read some Dorothy Parker (I remember some not nice comments about A. A. Milne) – and a bit of Woolcott, but that wasn’t easy to find, he’s gone out of print. Influential critic one moment, forgotten the next. I actually have a Thin Man film lined up for the marathon, (never heard of them), but it seems to be the second one, so I’ll see if I can find the first.

By: Petter

Petter — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:29:00 +0000

The Algonquin group – strange – how many of the people reading your blog have heard of the Algonquin group (without cheating and going to Wikipedia or Googling it)? Reminds me of P.J. O’Rourke’s comment about how thrilled he was not to have to explain every reference when he moved from Rolling Stone to The Atlantic. It’s like me and my oldest friends – no need to explain references. It’s lived experience.My favorite Algonquin writers were Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott.The Marx Brothers – love them, love them, love them. Read at least four books about them, including two bios of Groucho. Seen all their movies. We got television in the 50’s and through the 50’s and early sixties, movies shown on TV were from the thirties and forties. Speaking of which, check out The Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy (if you haven’t already).

By: Bjørn Stærk

Bjørn Stærk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:03:06 +0000

I read two or three of his books when I was a teenager. Especially liked The Razor's Edge. I wonder if I'll still like him. I also remember a library stuffed with books - didn't read any Maugham or Dickens when I was eleven, but I can remember exactly on which shelves I would find Jules Verne, Roald Dahl, and some series about Davy Crocket and Robin Hood. Favourite Algonquin: Harpo Marx, (as described in Harpo Speaks).

By: Petter

Petter — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:21:36 +0000

Somerset Maugham – first read him when I was eleven years old and living in a small town in Canada. This would have been 1956. The town’s population was around 2000 and even though everything looks bigger to a child, I remember that the library was small, with narrow aisles, stuffed with books. It was there that my urge to read was triggered (although something must have triggered my urge to to enter the library) and where I discovered amongst others – Maugham, Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, O’Henry, E.M Forster, The Algonquin group and, yes, the urge to read and learn, still not satied at age 63. I read Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge and Moon and Sixpence, but what I remember most from that time and my reading of Maugham was his short stories – if memory serves (and it doesn’t) – the library had series of books of his short stories. What I do remember is that I read them all. He was one of my favourite authors from that time, although I feel no need to revisit him.