A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America
Search in google:
John Updike has brought together eleven current members--including Cynthia Ozick, Norman Mailer, and Louis Auchincloss--to raid the Academy's archives. With each writer taking on a decade of the Academy's history, they have created an eye-opening documentary of an organization central to the arts in America for the past century. Booknews Besides Updike, big names contributing include Norman Mailer, Cynthia Ozick, and Arthur Schlesinger. Their approach is not so much institutional history as a cascade of anecdotes illustrating how the US intelligentsia conduct themselves when they think the hoi poloi are not watching. Among the tales are a feud between brothers over which one was worthier, the struggle against modernism in the 1930s that resulted in F. Scott Fitzgerald and H.L. Mencken failing to be nominated, and Gore Vidal declining membership on the grounds that he already belonged to the Diners Club. Lists of past and present members are appended. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
ForewordAcknowledgments1898-1907: The Founders' Story11908-1917: Idealism and Patriotism281918-1927: Against Modernity - Annals of the Temple471928-1937: The Infiltration of Modernity861938-1947: Decade of the Row1051948-1957: The Testimony of Two Artists1361958-1967: Rounding Camelot1561968-1977: Housekeeping in a Messy World1981978-1987: Holding the High Ground2381988-1997: Decade of Reunion264AppAcademy Members, Past and Present293Index327
