While Rome Burns

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While Rome Burns is a book collecting some of the 20th century American critic Alexander Woollcott's writings for the New Yorker [1] and other magazines. The title is a reference to the popular legend that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. The book was published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934. Vincent Starrett hailed it as one of the 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century". [2] Woollcott promoted the book on his radio show and his pointed critiques, quips, and asides gained enough of an audience to make it a bestseller. [2] The New York Times reviewed it. [3] The book includes accounts of his travels to Japan and Russia. [4]

A sequel, Long, Long Ago, was published after Woollcott's death in 1943. [5]

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References

  1. "WHILE ROME BURNS by Alexander Woollcott" via www.kirkusreviews.com.
  2. 1 2 Wallace, David. "The Round Table". Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 168. ISBN   978-0-7627-7010-6.
  3. Poore, C. g (4 March 1934). "Mr. Woollcott Runs On and On;" via NYTimes.com.
  4. "Asia and the Americas". 24 December 2018 via Google Books.
  5. "Vincent Starrett and the 1934 Baker Street Irregulars Dinner". Studies in Starrett.