From Publishers Weekly
A New York syndicated cartoonist, art teacher and guitarist lovingly recalls his 20-year friendship with Carl Sandburg, who often stayed in his home in Manhattan's Yorkville. The aging poet, having been a longtime admirer of Andres Segovia, got in touch with members of the Society of the Classic Guitar in 1948 and contributed some texts for their Guitar Review, which d'Alessio edited. The book celebrates Sandburg's ruggedness and "aw-shucks" simplicity; his great pleasure in singing, playing and listening to the guitar; his acquaintance with Tallulah Bankhead and Marilyn Monroe; and his adventures in acquiring many guitars. Hitherto unpublished photographs and drawings of Sandburg and his friends add to the charm of this memoir.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This entertaining trifle gives new firsthand accounts of Sandburg's last decades. Always captivated by music (his American Songbag first appeared in 1926), Sandburg joined the small N.Y. Classic Guitar Society in 1948. D'Alessio was its secretary and provides in this book a series of rambling anecdotes about the poet and his "guitar friends"; Andres Segovia, Edward Steichen, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Marilyn Monroe also flit in and out. Although future critics and biographers may be grateful for these sidelong glances at the poet, the book has little else to recommend it. Neither well organized nor especially well written, it is suitable for subject collections that are building primary sources. Michael Edmonds, State Historical Soc. of Wisconsin Lib., Madison
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
