Paul Steiner (1)

There was a bit of a tendency in the 1960s to prepare collections of alleged wit and wisdom of recently deceased political figures. I've seen ones done for Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy. This particular volume was published in paperback form in August, 1965, scant weeks after the death of Stevenson from a heart attack. The weakness of this kind of tome is that it is, invariably, a clip-and-paste job, and rather saccharine in the selection. The bits in this book fall into a few categories: wormy old jokes that are Joe Miller-class; political sniping; and rather heavy-handed self-deprecating humour. This, combined with Stevenson's rather inflated reputation for intellectualism, makes it rather hard to take this book. Very little of the wit and wisdom related in this book has survived the test of time -- a sharp contrast, say, with Churchill. Not particularly recommended, unless you're a liberal Democrat who views Stevenson as a secular saint. Slender in form, slender in substance.… (més)