Dawn to Decadence, Josephine Earp, Richard Burton & Barnaby

Jud opened Nevermore with From Dawn to Decadence:  500 Years of Western Life by Jacques Barzun.  The book examines the way that various revolutions—political, religious, artistic—affected European culture, leading to the world as we know it today. The book begins right after the Protestant Reformation, and examines many of the pivotal figures in the history of ideas, leading to what the author sees as a post-decadent society in which humanity seems to have lost its way.   Barzun is very good at bringing the arts into his discussions, which may be why Jud enjoys his writing so much, referring to it as his favorite sleep-inducing literature. Light reading it is not, but it is a well done and insightful tome from a respected scholar.

Another sort of Western history—the American West, that is—was brought up with Lady at the O.K. Corral:  The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner.  Josephine was Earp’s fourth common-law wife and had quite a colorful history of her own, albeit one that she mostly wanted to be kept quiet.  She was the daughter of a Prussian Jewish couple and spent her early years in New York where she acquired her distinctive accent.  The family moved to San Francisco in 1870 when Josephine was ten.  She later ran away from home and became (among other things), an actress and dancer before she met Wyatt.  Our reviewer is finding it to be a very interesting account of a woman and an era.  He also is intrigued by a different view of Wyatt Earp than is usually encountered.

The Richard Burton Diaries is a compilation of the private diaries of the British actor starting from his teenage years up until 1983. Burton wrote of his daily life, including his encounters with other celebrated folk but our reviewer says there aren’t a lot of juicy details.  There are, however, many accounts of bodily functions.  All in all, it’s an unvarnished look at an acclaimed actor who struggled with insecurity and jealousy while remaining a sharp observer of the world. Editor Chris Williams supplies annotations to flesh out some entries.

Finally, Jud brought in Barnaby by Crockett Johnson. Today Johnson is best known as the author of the Harold and the Purple Crayon books, but a decade earlier he had a small but avid following for his strip Barnaby whose fans included Dorothy Parker and Louis Untermeyer.  Barnaby is a little boy who has a fairy godfather—a short, stubby, somewhat inept, cigar-chomping, Irish fairy godfather named Jackeen J. O’Malley who is given to exclaiming “Cushlamochree!”   Barnaby’s parents believe he’s making this all up, of course, even after Mr. O’Malley decides to run for Congress.  The campaign is still believable today, even though the strips ran in 1942.