Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. - Softcover

Smith, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393336301 ISBN 13: 9780393336306

Publisher: W. W. Norton, 1957

Synopsis

"A classic evocation of childhood . . . a masterly mixture of up-country drawl and Huckleberry Finn."â The New Yorker

A hugely popular bestseller when it first appeared in 1957, Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. is Robert Paul Smith's nostalgic and often wry look back on his 1920s childhood. Smith agitates against what he perceives as the over-scheduled and over-supervised lives of suburban children as he celebrates privacy, boredom, and time to oneself away from adults. Arcane games and pastimes including mumbly-peg, horse-chestnut collecting, and Indian scalp burns pervade the book, alongside tales of young loveâ "I loved the smell of kerosene. Rose smelled of kerosene. I loved Rose."â and hard-won observations by Smith the elder. Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. still conveys the essence of adventure that forms the basis of a fondly recalled childhood. Ten black-and-white illustrations

About this title

About the Author

Robert Paul Smith was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, and graduated from Columbia College in 1936. He authored four novels as well as Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. and its companion, How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself.

Review

“Mr. Smith is sympathetic. Mr. Smith is also very funny . . . heartwarming.”
- The New York Times Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton
• Publication date: 1957
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393336301
• ISBN 13: 9780393336306
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128