This is a good survey of the literary efforts of the American Entertainment personality of the mid-twentieth century. He often had a radio book review show, and was widely seen as an irascible intellectual. He did some play writing, had small film and Broadway roles, and was a familiar figure in the New Yorker Magazine and at the Algonquin round Table. His epigrams were often attributed to others, but were penetrating. "Los Angeles is seven neighbourhoods in search of a city." "His huff having arrived, he left in it!" "Everything I like to do is either illegal, Immoral, or fattening." being the best known. Thus the book is worth the reading. Warning. I read this book when I was eighteen; it has probably warped my prose style ever since. ( )