Customer Reviews

First Encounters: A Book of Memorable Meetings

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book a delight. The illustrations are truly splendid. I disagree with one of the previous reviewers: The text is not so much "lite" as simply light-hearted. Most of the persons mentioned are sufficiently familiar to be of considerable interest.

When I first looked at this book I thought it reminded me of the "Impossible Interviews" feature in the book "Vanity Fair: A Cavalcade of the 1920s and 1930s" (An anthology of that magazine when it was the wittiest, smartest, most entertaining thing ever.) Sure enough, when I read the introduction to "First Encounters", it turns out the authors were inspired by the "Impossible Interviews".

(The "First Encounters" are people who really did meet and talk; among them are such interesting combinations as Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman, Sarah Bernhardt and Thomas Edison, Isak Denison and Marilyn Monroe). The "Impossible Interviews" were people who couldn't possibly have anything to say to each other; the funniest one was Greta "I vant to be alone" Garbo vs. Calvin "Cool Cal" Coolidge.)

Anybody who loves the Vanity Fair collection will love First Encounters, and vice versa.

edward sorel has one of the best drawings on the newpapers, and nancy caldwell, text is wonderfully wit! A high level humour.

The design team on this book did a wonderful job on packaging the project. Indeed Mr. Sorel is a very talented artist. The book, however, does not reach the level of being a good gift book due to it's lack of content and it is not a good coffee table book either due to the relative obscurity of some people of subject. The collaborative project is notable, and fans of the author and illustrator will surely appreciate it, but it is not a recommended purchase for anyone else.