Add this book to your wish list | View your wish list | Link to this book

Click on this books subject categories to see related titles:
Subjects > History > General
Subjects > Journalists - diaries


Add your own review!

About This Book:

Title: A Diary of the Century: Tales by America's Greatest Diarist

Details
Language:        English

Size
Weight:        1.8 Pounds
Height:         9.3 Inches
Width:          6 Inches
Thickness:    1.3 Inches


Publisher Notes
From eager youth in Kewanee, Illinois, to feature writer and author, Ellis paints a palpable, candid, and telling picture of American life and his own experiences in the twentieth century. His book is filled with hundreds of characters and plots for scores of short stories and dozens of novels. He sees Garbo on the silent screen, and he hears Jolson sing when movies begin talking. He is a teenager when Wall Street crashes, and a young man during the Great Depression. His diary entries of those lean years are among the most visceral, haunting passages in the book. As a reporter in Kewanee, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Peoria, Chicago, and New York, Ellis had a ringside seat at events rarely witnessed by most Americans. He interviews Thomas Mann on Germany in the wake of the Nazi defeat; he watches Mae West ogle Mr. America backstage; he takes long walks with Harry Truman, and inadvertently uses Eleanor Roosevelt as a messenger during World War II. We also find candid portraits of Sinclair Lewis, Louis Armstrong, Paul Robeson, Irving Berlin, and Grace Kelly, among many other celebrities, as well as dozens of ordinary Americans, like Frank Bronnenkant, the riveter who fell in love with the Brooklyn Bridge. Cited as America's largest diary in the Guinness Book of World Records, Ellis's journal is a vivid, passionate portrait of twentieth-century America, mirroring its turbulent decades and tumultuous changes. It is also the stirring personal drama of one man and his times: the author as adolescent, bachelor, husband, father, reporter, widower, friend, and indomitable octogenarian. This is enduring Americana, evocative and enlightening, amusing and wise; a wondrous saga to read and savoroften and with great pleasure.

Industry Reviews
"This glorious mishmash constitiutes an informal history of the 20th century America by an inquisitive writer who interviewed everyone from Harry Truman to Irving Berlin to fifty-cent whores in the slums of New Orleans."
(09/04/1995)
"There are human beings not yet born who will be helped in an understanding of our times through the diaries of Edward Robb Ellis."


Book Details Summary: The title of this book is A Diary of the Century: Tales by America's Greatest Diarist and it was written by Edward Robb Ellis. This edition of A Diary of the Century: Tales by America's Greatest Diarist is in a Hardcover format. This books publish date is July 1995 and it has a suggested retail price of $25. There are pages in the book and it was published by Kodansha Amer Inc. The 10 digit ISBN is 1568360800 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9781568360805. For the most current lowest price, Click Here.