Clifton Fadiman

An anthology of poems, stories, and articles drawn from the first nine issues of the magazine Cricket.

A worm with a voracious appetite for words who has grown bored with those he finds in the tabloids, discovers the dictionary where his flagging appetite revives. Includes puns, puzzles, and plays on words.

In print for almost 40 years, The Lifetime Reading Plan has long been a worthy addition to any serious reader's bookshelf, providing entertaining and informative introductions to the great works of Western civilization. Now, this "classic about classics" has been updated to reflect more diverse traditions. The New Lifetime Reading Plan recommends great literature from around the globe, including writers and works from Confucius to Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Garcia Marquez to the Koran. Also new is an appendix profiling books by 100 important 20th-century authors--or "temporary classics," as coauthor John S. Major calls them.

Book Description: Clifton Fadiman's classic collection of mathematical stories, essays and anecdotes is now once again available. Ranging from the poignant to the comical via the simply surreal, these selections include writing by Aldous Huxley, Martin Gardner, H.G. Wells, George Gamow, G.H. Hardy, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and many others. Humorous, mysterious, and always entertaining, this collection is sure to bring a smile to the faces of mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike.

Anthology of quotations by Americans, or about America, classified by subject.

This book is primarily a literary analysis of a number of famous authors and works of fiction. Mr. Fadiman started as a book reviewer, with a stint at the New Yorker. He was considered an enfant terrible for writing scathing reviews of works that were generally accepted as classics. With time he segued into a career as the moderator of the radio quiz show Information Please. In this work, Fadiman revisits and reassesses the works of Gertrude Stein, Tolstoy, Henry James, and others. He detested Stein and his take down of her was enjoyable to read. I suspect, this is a book to dip into, reading only Fadiman's take on the authors that interest the reader. Fadiman's career was an interesting dichotomy. His work was often considered high brow by the hoi polloi, but low brow by the intellectual class. In that way, he couldn't win.

humor