Word: almanacs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
NONFICTION 1-Doris Day, Hotchner (1) 2-World of Our Fathers, Howe (4) 3-The Russians, Smith (6) 4-Bring On the Empty Horses, Niven (3) 5-The People's Almanac, Wallechinsky & Wallace (7) 6-The Relaxation Response, Benson (2) 7-Winning Through Intimidation, Ringer (5) 8-Angels, Graham (8) 9-The Adams Chronicles, Shepherd (9) 10-My Search for Patty Hearst, Weed
Novelist Irving Wallace and his son David Wallechinsky* justify this massive expenditure of paper and ink with forthright immodesty: "Where the familiar, standard almanacs leave off and stop-well, that's where The People's Almanac begins." They are incontestably correct. Among the items not to be found in standard almanacs but present here: summaries of every game played in the Little League World Series; a biography of Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck's miserly uncle; pop psychohistories of selected U.S. Presidents, including Truman ("Harry was a 'mama's boy' "); 16 pages of fact...
Seekers of such argument settlers as the population of American cities or the gross national product will not find them in The People's Almanac. But the book is a trove for trivia freaks who wake in the middle of the night with a craving to list "15 renowned redheads" (e.g., Thomas Jefferson, Lucille Ball) or the "nine breeds of dog that bite the most" (among them: German shepherd, chowchow, poodle) or the site of the annual watermelon seed-spitting contest (Paul's Valley, Okla.). Those addicted to the filler material at the bottom of newspaper columns will...
Containing over 1 million words, 250,000 words more than in the Bible, the book is both massively silly and regularly entertaining. With its jumbling of serendipitous facts and legends, crackpot theories, gossip and lunacies through the ages, The People's Almanac resembles nothing so much as an inspired collaboration between Benjamin Franklin and Rona Barrett. Paul Gray...
...People 's Almanac,Wallechinsky & Wallace...