Uncle Mame: The Life Of Patrick Dennis [Paperback]

Eric Myers (Author), Virginia Rowans (Principal), Edward Everett Tanner III (Principal), Eric Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 24, 2001

Under his pseudonyms of Patrick Dennis and Virginia Rowans, Edward Everett (Pat) Tanner III was the author of sixteen novels—most of them best sellers—including the now-classic Little Me and Auntie Mame. Tanner made millions, became the toast of Manhattan society, and had his works adapted into wildly successful plays, musicals, TV shows, and films. But he also spent every cent he made, worked incognito as a butler to the wealthy, and constructed a persona so elaborate that not even his wife and children ever quite knew the real Pat. Based on extensive interviews with coworkers, friends, and relatives, Uncle Mame is a revealing, intimate portrait of the man who brought camp to the American mainstream and even in his lowest moments personified—even in his lowest moments— the glamour and wit he captured on the page.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If Dennis is remembered at all today, it is as the author of Auntie Mame. But in the late 1950s and early '60s, Edward Everett Tanner III (who published under the pseudonyms Patrick Dennis and Virginia Rowans) was a phenomenally popular novelist. Myers's literate, impeccably researched and entertaining biography resurrects this outrageous author of social satires who almost singlehandedly introduced "camp" into mainstream American culture. In 1955, Tanner wrote several short stories about an irreverent, fabulous woman that were turned down by 19 publishers until an editor at Vanguard Press suggested he turn them into a novel. Auntie Mame made Tanner a millionaire (during the novel's 112-week stint on the New York Times bestseller list, he became the first author to have three books on the Times list at once, when he published Guestward Ho! and The Loving Couple in 1956). Tanner was at his career peak in late 1962, when his Little Me opened on Broadway. But a week after he was profiled in Life, he attempted suicide and was committed to a mental hospital for eight months. After years of leading a double life as a gay man while married with two kids, he had fallen in love with another man and decided he had to leave his family. By the early '70s, his novels were out of fashion and he had spent (or drunk) most of the money he had made. He later reentered the milieu he'd previously enjoyed by becoming a butler to the rich and famous (including McDonald's founder Ray Kroc). The name Patrick Dennis has faded from most readers' memories, but that of Auntie Mame lives on (1998's But Darling, I'm Your Auntie Mame tracked her incarnations from book to stage to screen). So the reference to Mame in the title, along with the fetching "Playbill"-style book jacket, should compensate for Dennis's current obscurity, and help draw theater fans to this well-told tale. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Raises a glass to Patrick Dennis, the divine social satirist who introduced America to Auntie Mame." -- -Vanity Fair

"The book you have to read." -- -Entertainment Weekly

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (December 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811006
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811005
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real 'Mame' revealed!, October 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis (Hardcover)

If any popular author deserves a biography, Patrick Dennis is that author. Very little has been reported in print about Patrick Dennis, and today he runs a very real danger of being forgotten or undiscovered by a generation of young people. As I am a "young person," and rabid fan of the writings of Mr. Dennis, I can attest to the enormous influence his books have had on my outlook. Once convinced to read his works, my friends and peers inevitably fall in love with his madcap characters and storytelling.

Most well known for his outrageus and extraordinarily popular creation, "Auntie Mame," "Patrick Dennis," (actually one of many pseudonyms) used his many "light comic novels" to introduce both a hilarious camp aesthetic into mainstream pop culture, and perhaps more importantly, an underlying philosophy of tolerance and celebration of differences.

Author Eric Myers dives right into the world of "Pat," and while he wastes no time in chronicling the eyebrow-raising behavior of young Pat, it might be slightly shocking for those unschooled in the style of Patrick Dennis. Have no worry -- the book builds in momentum, ever expanding on Pat's experiences in a world of lovable free spirits, searing society shenanigans, and snobbish blowhard conservatives, all stock characters of the Dennis style.

Eric Myers paints a vivid picture of time and place, recreating an urbane society where someone with Pat's obvious flamboyant tendencies can be labeled as simply "fun and exotic." But Pat was a real person, not just one of his creations, and there is a real inner human struggle to be explored, as well.

Thankfully, Myers peppers the heavily researched book with a generous amount of rare writings from Pat (including a marvelous grab-bag Appendices), and includes many entertaining quotes from friends and family. The book is appropiately structured like a Patrick Dennis story, this time, Pat himself serving as the teacher of the value of being one's self, no matter how difficult that may seem.

The only criticism I have of the book (and I didn't allow it to effect my star rating) is the extremely tacky design of the book jacket. Without doubt, the most ardent fans of Mr. Dennis are extremely aesthetically sensitive, so there's no excuse for the second-rate-dinner-theater-playbill-knockoff of a cover. Wisely, the publishers printed the book in standard issue Patrick Dennis "light comic novel" size, so it will fit nicely next to your copy of Auntie Mame.

Patrick Dennis has taught many people not to "judge a book by its cover" (so to speak) and that lesson applies well here. Eric Myers has crafted a very funny, exhaustive, affectionate portrait of one of pop culture's most influential authors. If Auntie Mame has played a special role in your life, check out the book that finally puts to rest the long debated origins of who the REAL Auntie Mame was.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astonishing man, a wonderful read, October 29, 2000

By 

L Goodman-Malamuth "Leslie Goodman-Malamuth" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis (Hardcover)

Eric Myers does a terrific job of capturing the soul and spirit of Edward Tanner (aka Virginia Rowans, aka Patrick Dennis). Myers' deft biographical skills show how Tanner saved his venom for the page and, alas, for himself, leaving behind family and friends who clearly loved him and love him still, nearly a quarter of a century after his death. The author also encapsulates the best parts of Tanner's sixteen novels and makes a strong case for Tanner's skill as a chronicler of mid-twentieth-century America, as he skewered the pompous and championed the unique. There's much more to Patrick Dennis than his most popular book, Auntie Mame, and I hope that this first biography will bring at least the best of his other novels--The Joyous Season, Genius, Little Me--back into print.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The real Mame revealed, December 4, 2000

By 

Michael Schau (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis (Hardcover)

For anyone who adores the quintessential pied-piper/mentor/guardian-of-all-eccentric, Mame Dennis, this biography of her creator is a joy. Edward Tanner (aka Patrick Dennis, among other pseudonyms) was a lively, witty, sad and self-destructive "character." Like so many writers (Wilde comes to mind here) he put most of his genius in living. What he could spare for his readers seems nothing in comparison to his life. But under all of that bubble and hauteur was a homosexual man who was deeply unhappy with his lot and his need to masquerade. Eric Myers has done a fine job in trying to unravel the complexities of a man who, in the words of young Patrick's nanny, Nora Muldoon, "was odd, a loving man, but odd."