LOUIS MENAND
263
tantalizingly close to) the age ofmechanical reproduction. On the other hand,
one wonders whether the celebrated manner,
if
we had the sort of visual and
phonographic record of it that we have of even the most transient star in the
contemporary firmament, might not strike us as anachronistic and faintly
ludicrous. Wilde was self-consciously a man of his age. The stress he placed
on the role of taste in society - the way he seemed to turn every question
about art or politics into a question about taste - is one of the things that
make
him
appear less important to many readers than Arnold or Ruskin. But
that emphasis also reflects, I think, Wilde's sense of the culture-bound nature
of culture. He did not make transhistorical claims for art or ideas. He did not
try
to speak to us and that is one of the things that make him interesting.
"Possibly the best account yet written
of
what it was like to
be
at the
center of NewYork bohemianism in
the 1950s and 1960s:'- Russell
Banks
C FredW McOarrah
Hettie was aJewish girl from Queens seeking escape
from her conventional family in the world of the
Beats.
Defying racism to marry playwright LeRoi Jones and
sexism to achieve recognition as a
poet
and writer of
award-winning childrens books, she lived what she calls
"a charmed life in the middle of other peoples wars."
"Abeautifully written- and brave- memoir. Its told with such heart
and unsparing honesty that it becomes every womans story....
I was deeply touched:'- Gloria Naylor
" She certainly has told it like it was! .. .She reminds
us haw many issues were
set
in relief and
struggled with and are still with us:'
- Dore Ashton
~ow
IBE(AME
~fTTlf
JONfS
~fTTlf
JONfS
DU'ITON
Penguin
USA
