Word: booked
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...long after Hollywood learned to talk it also learned to read, and producers have always liked movies about books-or at least about book titles. But never before have the moviemakers so eagerly turned the bestseller lists into production schedules. Hollywood now has nearly 500 books in some stage of production. The man who is leading the book trend, galley proofs flying and reading glasses agleam, is a glib, moon-faced middleman of culture named Jerry Wald...
...Guerard's book is not quite so sweeping as the title would indicate, which is just as well. There is very little biographical detail, and he is willing to deal with his favorite novels at great length, while others are dismissed with a few pages, or none. Partisans of Victory and Chance may complain that they are worth more than a half-dozen pages apiece, but Guerard's rejection of them is persuasive...
...dramatization of the "night journey," a descent into the unconscious to meet one's dark and criminal double--one's Kurtz or Leggat. Obviously, Conrad did not know enough Jung and Fraser to understand the "dramatization," and the core of the interpretation--and of much of the book--is the assumption that Conrad wrote more than he knew. Guerard explains in a footnote...
Finally, the book has two general merits which are worth special mention, especially since it is difficult to cite most the merits of a book of this kind except with an empty summary. Guerard writes well; this is a rare quality in a book of detailed criticism, and I hope it sets an example that will be widely followed. Second, he is occasionally willing to summarize; this is an even rare and more useful quality, since it requires more courage than the average academician can muster...
...actively edits an historical quarterly put out by the Essex Institute in Salem, and is currently writing a book of his own--to be a study of Newburyport during and after the American Revolution...