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| Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse | 
 enlarge | Author: Douglas M. Parker
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (11 reviews)
Sales Rank: 264703
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1566637295
Dewey Decimal Number: 70
EAN: 9781566637299
ASIN: 1566637295
Publication Date: April 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Candy / Is dandy / But liquor / Is quicker. These inimitable lines could only have been written by Ogden Nash, the American nonpareil of light verse and one of the more remarkable figures in American letters. His keen grasp of human nature and a unique style of verse made him, in the mid-twentieth century, the most widely read and frequently quoted poet of his time. For years, readers have longed for a biography to match Nash's charm, wit, and good nature; now we have it in Douglas Parker's absorbing life of the poet. Mr. Parker has had exclusive access to family letters and diaries, and permission to quote liberally from them and from Nash's poems. He has written a warm and inviting biography of the poet who reveled in whimsy and wordplay, but who was applauded by his more serious contemporaries.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 OK biography October 23, 2008
OK biography of New Yorker poet Nash, famous for Candy/is Dandy/But liquor/is Quicker and other short poems of whimsy and poignant humor. Nash, of patrician lineage and noblesse oblige leanings, actually has family roots in Hillsborough, NC (I knew that was a snooty place), but for all that seems like a decent guy.
 Nashville May 29, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Loved the book. Ogden Nash? Not so much. As a little boy I loved his verses and would browse through THE NEW YORKER slapping the pages from left to right to see if they were carrying a new Nash poem that week. Often as not, they were, then I'd be happy, crawling away toward my treehouse to memorize his goofy sense of humor and his sophisticated attitude towards marriage. I can see how, without Ogden Nash, there might never have been a Stephen Sondheim. Parker is his ideal biographer. Obviously he had a lot of assistance from Nash's two enigmatic daughters, Linell and Isabel, whose photographs make them look like two grave Snow Whites. And yet he is not afraid to call a spade a spade, and we get the picture that the mother of these two girls, Frances, was often a Xanthippe for reasons unknown.
It's great that Parker did so much work towards reconstructing Nash's other life as a Broadway lyricist, and I'm sure that his account of Nash's work with Kurt Weill and with Vernon Duke will never be excelled.
He doesn't really pay much attention to the Hollywood work, however, and I don't know if he even bothered screening the Jeanette MacDonald starrer THE FIREFLY (co-written with Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett), which is nothing short of excellent.
The story gets grim as Nash ages and his career takes a nosedive. You get to despise Roger Angell, Nash's editor at THE NEW YORKER, for being such an obseqious Uriah Heep, even when he's rejecting Nash's latest efforts. It's like he delights in kicking Nash's butt while kissing it at the same time. Nash seems aware of Angell's double nature, but doesn't really know what to do about it. THE NEW YORKER seems like a velvet trap--can't live without it, but it tears you to pieces inside. I also enjoyed reading the parodies or pastiches of Nash's verse that Parker has collected from all different sources, from Dorothy Parker to Scott Fitzgerald, everyone wanted a piece of the man.
To top it all off, Dorothy Lamour got upset with Nash and laid into him with both barrels, when he wrote a poem for her to read on the air that contained the word "conundrum." She thought it risque, perhaps confusing it with "condom," and refused to save her reputation. Furious, she lashed out, "If you don't think I know what that word means--and that I'll be fool enough to say it on the air--you're crazy! I wasn't born yesterday!" Nash wrote to Frances, "she's very pleasant but as dumb as you would imagine." (Not as bad as his opinion of poor Ginger Rogers: "coarse, painted, dyed.")
We Should Remember Nash December 1, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
When I think of Ogden Nash, I think first of a poem I read in school a long time ago titled "The Purist." I have read it too many times to actually laugh out loud again, but I still smile when I read it. I become the kid I once was somehow, happy to hear the joke over and over again.
I think Ogden Nash brings back memories for many older Americans. When I was reading the new biography Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse by Douglas M. Parker, while eating a sweet roll in Panera last week, an older man noticed. As he passed my table he said, "Ah, Ogden Nash, he was a wonderful man." I noticed the older man, who looked like a retired executive, having a look of competence and industry, was cleaning tables. Was he laid off by a corporation, replaced by someone young? Was he working at Panera because he was unable to find a management job in the new economy, which disvalues the older, experienced worker? Is Nash for him a link to a happier time, his time?
Nash has often been a bright spot in a dark time. He became popular for his humorous poetry during the Great Depression when his works began to appear regularly in The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines. Because he was never paid much for his poems, he had to write and sell a lot of them, which he continued to do into the 1960s, when changing tastes made his work harder to sell. By the time of his death in 1971, he had published over a thousand poems.
Nash did not only write poetry. He tried his hand as a book editor, magazine editor, screen writer, playwright, lyricist, and game show panelist. He was valued as an editor at Doubleday and other publishers, but the pay was poor and he left the profession to write fulltime. His efforts in Hollywood and on Broadway always started with lots of promise but usually fizzled. Radio and television appearances eventually paid fairly well, but poetry was his steady income.
Being a writer, he often worked from home. Unlike many men of his era, he seems to have spent much time with his two daughters. On several occasions, he was the primary parent as his wife took long European vacations. It may not have been difficult to do, as the family always had servants. His wife had her own money inherited from her "old family" Baltimore ancestors. She and Nash were always able to live the country club and martini life.
I think readers will enjoy learning how involved Nash was in the literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s. He knew Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, and many others. Douglas M. Parker also tells much about mid-twentieth century world of publishing. Fans of The New Yorker will especially want to read this book.
Some will enjoy the book for their own memories. There are many Nash verses scattered throughout the text.
Read "The Purist." The punch line ends with a word that rhymes with "smile."
 Parker paints Nash in a fashion not smashin' November 2, 2005
3 out of 13 found this review helpful
The philosopher poet, Ogden Nash,
Though born and wed to privilege,
was throughout his lifetime frightfully far from bogged in cash
(Or at least he so lamented).
Doug Parker says,
while assuring us his penury never quite prevented
Nash from keeping house or houses
Servant-staffed while traveling
in luxury with wife and kids and friends with kids and spouses.
Though his efforts yielded flops
In Hollywood and Broadway ventures,
rhymes he wrote for glossies and anthologies and his hops
Around the lecture circuit
(Which, though ruinous
To his fragile health, he never would quite shirk it)
Kept his ledger black enough.
Indeed, couplets comparing
the speed of bonbons versus bourbon and similar wacky stuff
(Like rhymes that ridiculed
A bluenosed "Ut" named Smoot
whose Senate stint by tariff acts and smiting smut was fueled)
Consistently kept Mr. Nash `n'
Fran `n' Lin `n' Isabel
(his wife and daughters) living in quite comfy fashion.
Nash's life was not a bore,
But Parker's grand obsession
With minutia made me often want to holler "Less is more!"
And, moreover, many others'
In the story, though tangential,
Had lives of greater interest were I to voice my `druthers.
:-)
- stanwhjr -
This Book is a Real Treat August 23, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Many of us probably recognize Ogden Nash as the creator of humorous poetry, but he was a man of far greater accomplishments than might be generally known.In this biography, Doug Parker gives a very complete and fascinating overview of Nash and the diversity of his works, which included movie scripts and--much to my surprise--song lyrics. Parker relates his story in manageable sequences, interspersing just enough famous lines from Nash to lure the reader into wanting to read more of the man's work. One would think that Parker knew Nash personally because of the skillful manner in which he discreetly discusses the poet's health problems, his devotion to his family, his dislike of confrontation, and the entire span of his creative life.
It took an impressive amount of research to create this interesting account of Nash's life, and Parker made much use of Nash's personal letters. He does not overwhelm the reader with excessive detail, rather, he leaves the reader feeling like one who has enjoyed a great meal but has not overeaten, and who knows he can come back for seconds by reading more of Nash's work. This is an enjoyable and informative book that gives the reader a real appreciation for the talents of Ogden Nash.
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