The Wine Lover's Daughter: A Memoir (Book Review)

 

In The Wine Lover’s Daughter, Anne Fadiman examines – with all her characteristic wit and feeling – her relationship with her father, Clifton Fadiman, a renowned literary critic, editor, and radio host whose greatest love was wine. An intellectual and public personality, Clifton Fadiman was perhaps best known as a literary critic for The New Yorker magazine. Pop culture enthusiasts know him as the weekly host of Information, Please, which later spawned an annual Almanac. Fadiman's witticisms and sayings were frequently printed in newspapers and magazines. "When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before, you see more in you than there was before," was one of the better known. Fadiman became a prime example of the "witty intellectual" and if you remember those “Book of the Month” mail order clubs… you can thank Fadiman for establishing that good ol’ pastime.

Anne’s book arrived in my mail box this week and like many of those 250-page memoirs that are overshadowed by the tens of thousands of books available on library shelves, this one is worthy of your time and attention. In full disclosure, I was partly responsible for the contents of this book. When Anne’s daughter contacted me, assisting her mother with this book, seeking information about her grandfather’s professional career, I mailed complimentary copies of my book on Information, Please, published many years ago by Bear Manor Media in Oklahoma. Hence the reason why the complimentary, autographed copy arriving at my door.

This book documents the personal side of Clifton Fadiman, his appreciation of wine – along with a plummy upper-crust accent, expensive suits, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Western literature – which was an essential element of his escape from lower-middle-class Brooklyn to swanky Manhattan. But wine was not just a class-vaulting accessory; it was an object of ardent desire. The Wine Lover’s Daughter traces the arc of a man’s infatuation from the glass of cheap Graves he drank in Paris in 1927; through the Château Lafite-Rothschild 1904 he drank to celebrate his eightieth birthday, when he and the bottle were exactly the same age; to the wines that sustained him in his last years, when he was blind but still buoyed, as always, by hedonism.

Clifton Radioman

Along the way, this book educates you with the basic appreciation of fine wine. After Fadiman sampled a glass, he once remarked how wine lived “a triple life: one in the mouth, another in the course of slipping down the gullet, still another, a beautiful ghost, the moment afterward.” As Anne revealed, her father was a lousy driver and a two-finger typist, but he could open a wine bottle as deftly as any swain ever undressed his lover.

Along the way this book provides us with the reminder that not all greats are destined to perfection of the basic tasks that we take for granted and assume everyone is capable of performing. After all, we ourselves generate fallacy and live within its shadows. Whether we discover something new about ourselves or a gentle reminder to forgive and forget the fallacies of others, perfection is rarely a word to brand about… and the true reason why memoirs are a full-course meal for the wise. Wine is the spine of this touching memoir; the life and character of Anne Fadiman’s father, along with her relationship with him and her own less ardent relationship with wine, are the flesh. The Wine Lover’s Daughter is a poignant exploration of love, ambition, class, family, and the pleasures of the palate by one of the finest essayists. Anne may not have inherited her father's love of wine, but she most definitely has his gift for writing and love of all things literacy. 

Hopalong Cassidy and the Abandoned Mine

For fans of Hopalong Cassidy, here is a PDF of a children's coloring book featuring the character, one of thousands of premiums sold in the stores during the 1950s. This retro classic will only be available for a few weeks so be sure to grab this today. Enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eedjonuz895hcqb/Hopalong%20Cassidy%2C%20Abandoned%20Mine.pdf?dl=0

The Lone Ranger Adventure Stories No. 2 (1958, UK)

Beginning in 1958, a total of four annual publications premiered on the bookshelves, known as The Lone Ranger Adventure Stories. Printed in England, these books contained prose stories adapted from the television and radio program, with original illustrations. Published in hardcover format, the prices for these four books wavers between $5 and $160, depending on their condition and where you buy them. While collectible condition means top dollar, reading condition can be found from $5 to $10 at conventions and fan gatherings where vendors sell collectibles.

Recently I was able to acquire Adventure Stories No. 2, from 1958, which featured illustrations by Don Lawrence, and six prose stories adapted by Richard Lewis, from television episodes. (It was easy to figure out which episodes since the titles of the short stories matched those of their television counterparts.) Reprinted below are some of the cool illustrations, along with a link for you to download a PDF of that book, which I scanned.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc0t1lv3udxzsxp/Lone%20Ranger%20Adventure%20Stories%20No.%202%20%281958%2C%20UK%29.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc0t1lv3udxzsxp/Lone%20Ranger%20Adventure%20Stories%20No.%202%20%281958%2C%20UK%29.pdf?dl=0

Top 100 Must-See Movie: It's a Gift (1934)

If I had to make a list of the 100 movies you must see before you die, It’s a Gift (1934) starring W.C. Fields would be on that list. The film concerns the trials and tribulations of a grocer as he battles a shrewish wife, an incompetent assistant, and assorted annoying children, customers, and salesmen. The film reprises routines honed by Fields from his stage career over the years (1915 to 1925 to be specific). Fields often tried to recapture sketches that led to his stage success onto film; skits such as “The Picnic,” “A Joy Ride,” and most famously, “The Back Porch” are all featured in It’s a Gift.

Having seen this wonderful delight the other week, I discovered many share the same sentiment. In 2010, the movie was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. It’s a Gift is included among the American Film Institute’s list of the “Top 100 Funniest American Movies.” When a compilation LP of W.C. Fields' best material was released in the 1970s, much of the material on that album came from this film.

 

Lesser known than some of Fields’ later works such as the hilarious The Bank Dick (1940), the film is perhaps the best example of the recurring theme of the Everyman battling against his domestic entrapment. 

Fields plays the owner of a general store who is hounded by his status-anxious wife. To get some sleep, he goes out on the porch where he is tormented by a little boy from the floor above and an insurance salesman down below. He uses an inheritance to buy an orange ranch through the mail, then drives off with his family for California. The orange grove consists of a withered tree, the ranch house is but a shack, and the car falls to pieces. At his lowest ebb, something wonderful happens and to provide more would be an injustice. 

 

Do yourself a favor and seek this movie out – you can thank me later.